Running
by Harmony Panger
Summary: Hermione Granger just wasn't herself anymore. But maybe, with the help of her old friend and a little bit of time-travel, she could stop that from happening again. - Some Weasley and Dumbledore Bashing - Eventual H/Hr
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Running

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own JK Rowling, Harry Potter does.

19th September 2020

Hermione Jean Weasley awoke with her unkempt hair covering her hazel eyes and a large amount of it on her face. As she tried to tame it with her hands, she noticed that she hadn't woken to the sounds of her children screaming. It took her a while to remember they had been at Hogwarts for nearly 3 weeks already. She still hadn't got used to the loneliness them being gone brought for her. She sighed noticing that her memory was continuing to get worse, over the past few years she was slowly becoming more and more forgetful, and she hated it. "Smartest Witch of the Age" was no longer a name she held with her flimsy memory. At least she remembered her medication. It didn't seem to do much but Ron said he could see a difference, even the smallest of compliments could make her feel so much better. She could take her medication later, even if she did forget, she'd get a searing headache to remind her to take it anyway.

Ron was out. This wasn't a surprise to Hermione. He usually spent the entire night out and the whole day working. He was home a lot more during the school holidays, often drunk, tired or beating the children. Rose would looked at him funny or Hugo would be writing with the wrong hand. Ron couldn't understand when things were even slightly unusual; this had meant Hermione was now distanced from the muggle world, but that was fine, she couldn't remember much about it anyway. After his ranting, raving and beatings were finished, Ron would go out, often to get a little more drunk. It was then that Hermione would run to her children to tend their wounds. Recently the children would simply run up to their rooms after rather than running to their mother like they once had, Rose knew a few simple healing spells and would use them on herself and her brother while glaring at her mother. It hurt Hermione when they first began to do this. Before she hadn't understood why they felt she was the one that had betrayed them, they were covered in bruises and often blood because of their father, not her. But she never stopped him, she never could. In the time after their years at Hogwarts, Hermione had become a coward. Hermione was becoming more and more numb to this however, no longer caring or simply feeling less when she saw this. This wasn't unusual. Her love for Ronald normally far outweighed anything else she could feel.

But yes, Ron was probably out 'working'. As his wife, Hermione was able to rely on him and trust him, but rumours often fly around, and though she knew the Daily Prophet often posted false stories, she couldn't help but wonder why, whenever an article mentioned Aurors doing great acts, he was never there. Not even once. He came home telling extravagant tales of taking on 4 rogue werewolves on his own or saving another Auror from a dementor's kiss, yet his tales never seemed to reach the news. She never received the Quibbler; Ron made her cancel that subscription 'costing us a bloody fortune' even though the Daily Prophet cost more. She had begun to question it less and less, she was being paranoid, he was a hard-working husband who provided everything for her, right?

He only came home for dinner on a Sunday and even then he would barely speak to her. He often ate at the Burrow which was only down the road. Hermione's still had a dull longing for independence, but she found herself living incredibly close to her in-laws, who often provided her family's meals, and didn't even have a job of her own. If Ron did speak to her, dinner would almost always end in arguing and Hermione realised that she often let him win barely even trying to prove her point or show her husband how ridiculous his argument was. Why did she do that?

Hermione's head had already started to ache. It felt like it was about to split open and she was about to reach out for the medicine, which Ron surprisingly made himself. She'd been having it for months and though the taste wasn't very pleasant the liquid itself looked enchanting, it was magenta with milk blue swirls and often seemed to call you to it, however, today Hermione couldn't hear that call. Instead, she went back to sleep.

 _Running. She found herself running. What from? She didn't know. Her feet moved on their own. She was terrified; she kept running. Then, at the end of the path, stood a figure. Tall and dark and dominating. She could smell something, something she found familiar, just like the figure. All she could see was its emerald green eyes staring straight through her. She had stopped running but was still drawn to the man in front of her. Suddenly she was pulled back into the arms of her husband, Ron. She squirmed to get free, feeling as though he wasn't holding her safe but holding her captive. Abruptly, she found herself in a room, cramped and cold. Gradually, it began to expand and was warming up. Then she heard the word 'Finite'._

Hermione woke up startled by her dream. However, rather than dwelling on it, she had one thought on her mind: 'Whatever happened to my old friend Harry?'

Hey, guys! This is my first ever story so I would really appreciate some constructive criticism in reviews. I'm thinking of continuing if you guys like it so far, I know its kind of short but I hope Chapter 2 would be longer. Thank You!

Update: This chapter has been updated, it is longer and hopefully better, thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own the Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. I wish I did.**

Getting rid of the strange thoughts bubbling in her head, Hermione finally dragged herself out of bed and headed over to her wardrobe to begin getting ready. She didn't have much choice to choose from as most of her clothes were bought by her mother-in-law and Molly's taste in clothing wasn't very varied. Hermione looked through the robes of pinks and purples, colours she had always loathed until she found the least hideous one. Even so wearing it made her feel sickly and she had a nagging feeling that lead her to retrieve her wand and redesigning the awful garment, something she had never before considered doing.

When her eyes looked back into the mirror she saw an emerald green dress spotted with red flowers and a clip in her hair resembling a phoenix. 'Much better' she thought and headed down to the kitchen.

She however never made it to the kitchen as she heard a thud in the living room and rushed in to see what had happened. A large old owl was lying on the floor; Hermione went over to help it noticing a parcel with a note attached to the horned owl's foot. As soon as she detached the package, the owl sprang up and flew out of the open window. Hermione looked at the note and wasn't at all shocked to see it was addressed to Ron. She never received mail – or if she did Ron took it first and she always let him. Why did she do that? She was questioning more and more her choice in lifestyle – was her love for him really a valid excuse? Her love seemed to feel more like an obsession. Today her curiosity got the better of her and Hermione opened the letter.

 _To my little Ronnie,_

 _I can't wait to see you again. You've spent so long away; we need to be together again. I can't bear this separation. When are you going to ditch the mud-blood? You already told me you love me and not her. If that's true then you need to prove it. I always hated her so I don't care how you get rid of her. Just do it! Then you and I can be together, can't we?_

 _I don't see why you've kept her for so long. I get that it was part of your plan but really? It's worked now. She can keep the brats and we can start our own family – just you and me._

 _Just in case you need more time though, I have left another bottle of Dominus Autemea however it's only enough for one month. I'm sure Ginny and your mother are well stocked if you need some more._

 _Yours forever and ever_

 _Lavender x_

Hermione's vision began to blur as tears pricked her eyes. What had she just read? A love letter? From Lavender? Lavender. Hermione remembered her of course. Ron's first proper love interest. Apparently his current love interest. Dominus Autemea. Hermione recognised the name, but couldn't place where she had heard it. Slowly she opened the package and found a large bottle filled with a magenta liquid with milk blue swirls. What was this drink she had been consuming for the past 20 years? Why had Ron been feeding it to her? Why would Ginny and Molly have a supply of it themselves?

And slowly something dawned on her. Hermione could no longer trust anyone she knew. She would run, but first she needed to know what Ron had been feeding her.

* * *

She headed upstairs and looked through her extensive book collection. It was her escape from her numb, forgetful self that had developed over the course of her married life. Ron had allowed her to have books, it kept her busy when she had nothing else to do, she fingered through the "P" section finding only a 6th year book on potions. Of course she wouldn't be allowed to keep books on potions, she probably could have figured Ron out a lot sooner.

Hermione headed back upstairs to the bedroom. She remembered when they first came to this small house, it was a much better time in her life, she was alive and aware and not completely obsessed with the man she married. She was pregnant with Rose though and she was pretty sure she loved Ronald but he could get angry. Really angry and have uncontrollable fits of rage. She had been ready to run then so she stole some of his money and hid it under a floorboard. It was just a case of remembering which one. She was feeling dizzy now, she never normally remembered things, the world began to spin and she fell to the floor.

* * *

"Hermy. Hermy! HERMS" Ron was screaming at her. "What are you doing on the floor?" Hermione tried to sit up, groaning as she did so, she looked outside and saw that the sun was just starting to set, she must have been out cold for hours.

"Hellooo?" he said, waving his hands in her face, "I asked you a question, how ditzy are you?"

Hermione barely heard his insults, she had just woken up. Properly. Her head was clear, she could remember so much, all of the past few years of her life that she was constantly wandering around in, barely alive were playing like a movie inside of her head. Suddenly she felt Ron slap her hard. Her face began to sting and her eyes began to water.

"I asked you a question. Never mind, just take your medicine and get ready to go, we are going to the Burrow for dinner."

* * *

Hermione was ignoring the idle chatter that was had around the table while she prodded at her bland potatoes and peas. She had noticed that Harry wasn't at the table, then she remembered he hadn't come to these dinners for a while. Was he ill? Was he working? Where was he? Why didn't she know?

"Where's Harry?" the words fell out of her mouth before she could stop them. She had to be more careful, if they noticed she hadn't been taking her "medicine"she didn't know what they'd do.

"Ron did you not tell her?" Ginny asked glaring at Hermione.

"He's dead. It was an attack from some were-wolves, we tried to save him..." Hermione didn't hear the rest of Ron's speech. Her heart like a drum bashing her ribs over and over, tears started streaming down her face and she could feel her hands shaking. Her best friend was dead, and she hadn't even noticed. Suddenly she rose from the table.

"What are you doing?" Molly said, sizing Hermione up.

"I think I want to head home, it's a short walk, I'll be fine." She headed towards the door, wiping the tears off her face.

"Where did you get the dress?" Ginny said abruptly. For a moment Hermione considered ignoring her and just bolting out the door, but she was sure that she probably would have normally answered. She was acting suspicious enough already. "It was on the floor of my wardrobe, I thought it was pretty."

"I thought she looked better than normal," Ron said startling Hermione. Normally that sort of comment would have sent a hint of pink rushing to her cheeks, instead she simply walked out of the house, ignoring the glares of Molly and Ginny who had clearly taken offence to Ron's attack on their choice of clothing.

The moment she was out of view of the Burrow she rushed home, went to the 6th panel on the floor of her bedroom and tore it open. Inside was a small sack of Sickles and Knuts and a photo of herself, Ronald and Harry soon after the Battle of Hogwarts. She picked up both of her belongings and stood up letting the tears fall freely down her face. She wasn't sure if she was ready but she knew she had to do it. Closing her eyes Hermione attempted to apparate for the first time in years.

With a bang she found her self in what appeared to be a rather lavish room, but she didn't have much time to take in her surroundings as stood opposite her was a man aiming his wand directly at her.

* * *

 **Update: I think this chapter is much better than I had made it before and is definitely different, I really hope you guys think its better and enjoy!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own Harry Potter. If I did Harry wouldn't have married a stalker. But he did, therefore, the franchise is clearly not owned by me. Rather Joanne Rowling owns it.**

''Who are you and what are you doing here?'' the man asked Hermione. He was very calm and if he was surprised by her arrival he was very good at not showing it.

The room she was in she found to be rather magnificent. There was a red and gold carpet and magnolia walls. A four poster bed against one wall and a walk-in wardrobe opposite it. The windows were large and ornate curtains draped around them. There were two large wooden doors that clearly led into the hallway and one smaller white door that led to an en suite. Hermione was rather taken aback by the very luxurious room, especially by its contrast to the one she shared with Ronald in her own home.

''Well?'' the man said his wand still pointing at her, his hand steady and clearly experienced.

''Sorry,'' she began, '' it's the first time I've apparated in a while. I was aiming for a friends house but I guess I won't be able to get there if this is how downhill my skills have gone, besides it was a long shot. My husband told me he had died recently, I was just hoping he was lying," she said sadly, trailing off,

''You never answered the first part of my question. Who are you?'' Hermione took in his appearance. Raven black hair, emerald green eyes, and as he lowered his wand and began to relax he had a contemplative look about him, almost as if he was taking her in.

''Hermione. Hermione Jean Weasley.''

"Well then, Mrs Weasley, let's head to my office," he said taking pity on the woman who had accidentally arrived in his abode.

Now sat in a rather grand office, Hermione realised something, she had no idea who the man sat opposite her was.

''I'm sorry but you've come at a rather awkward time. You see, I'm about to leave this house, permanently. Were you planning on asking this friend for a place to stay," Hermione nodded, staring rather intensely into the strange man opposite her, "Well, you can stay here. The property is still mine, but considering I won't be here in less than five minutes, it's yours. I would give you a tour but I really must be going," he said hurriedly near-running out of the room.

"Harry?" he stopped. He had been hoping to get away with it. He knew she didn't like him. She hadn't returned a single letter that he'd sent her in 15 years. Then there was the fact that after Ron had tried to sell him out to some deranged Death Eaters, who still felt Voldemort was out there, she hadn't once contacted him again. It didn't matter anyway now. He was leaving. He was going to do things properly this time.

"Hermione," he replied, "why are you here?"  
"Harry..." she stumbled over her words unsure of where to start. "What does Dominus Autemea mean to you? I have my suspicions but I'd like to check with you"

"To me? It means Ginny. It's definition, however, well Dominus is master in latin and autemea seems to come from animae. Reminds me of a phrase in latin: Dominus animae meae or Master of my soul. And that is exactly what that kind of potion would be for. Creating a slave. Someone who becomes obsessed with you and would never question your commands." He said. Hermione could see the hurt in his eyes as he spoke, finally, she realised the importance of what he had said. She had never loved Ronald. They argued constantly, he was awful to her and rarely showed her any appreciation, how could she want to be with someonelike that? Then she recognised what Harry had initially said.

"Ginny? I always thought that you wouldn't be the kind of person to date someone who had posters of you on her wall." They both had to stifle a chuckle at that.

''Where are we, Harry?"

"Potter Manor. We're in Wales"

"Oh..."

Then Harry remembered she was visiting a friend. A friend she thought was dead. "Were you trying to find me?"

"Yes..."

"It took you a while but considering someone had you under the influence of a potion I guess I can forgive you." he said with a smile, then it faded away, "You thought I was dead..."

"Ron told me. I guess I just believed him." Harry wasn't surprised. He remembered being willing to kill for Ginny, believing anything Ginny said was never hard for him, why would it be for Hermione?

"Harry where are you going? Please tell me. You aren't the only one who needs to get away."

Harry remained silent for a while. Clearly deliberating whether or not to let her know. If he was truly going to be able to do it properly this time, he was going to need someone who knew what he was talking about, it would be nice to have some company.

"Hermione." He took a deep breath, "I'm going back. Back to before all of this. Back to our first year on the Hogwarts Express. I need to do things properly this time. I lost too many people, Sirius, Remus, Neville, Luna and you, even if you weren't dead. I wouldn't mind you coming, but Hermione you would have to remember, coming would mean losing everything here. Travelling back in time might mean that half of the life you've built up here might just disappear. I can't ask you to leave all that behind for me."

"Of course you can't. Because I'm coming either way." Harry's eyes lit up, he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room and down several flights of stairs. He was like a child again, Hermione had always made him feel so much lighter.

They were now in a darkly lit room, all that was inside was a black long box with only a handle on the side. Harry stopped and let go of Hermione's hand. He opened the door and stepped back to where Hermione was. She peered inside. It was rather small, she doubted it would be able to handle them both unless they really squeezed against each other and even then she thought the box would break...

"Best to go at it with a run" Before she could ask what it meant he ran straight through the box and had disappeared.

"Harry?" No reply. She mustered up some of that Gryffindor courage that had failed her so often in the past. She ran through. Then her vision was clouded by smoke.

* * *

 **Sorry, this was such a short chapter, they should start getting longer and be uploaded more often once I start to have more time.**

Please review, I'm open to constructive criticism.

Update: I didn't edit this chapter too much, I think I made it better but that's really up to you guys!


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own Harry Potter. Hermione wouldn't have ended up with someone she constantly argued with. Clearly, JK Rowling does.**

* * *

Hermione's vision was clouded by smoke and as it cleared she realised she was pushing a trolley with some trunks on it. A train whistle was heard and as she looked around she found 11-year-old Harry grinning at her.

"It worked!"

Hermione looked around. She saw a large clock showing that it was 10:00, an hour before the Hogwarts Express that was stationary in front of her, would leave. She was wearing muggle clothing as was Harry in front of her, his unruly hair covering his scar. On his trolley, he too had trunks, and a very much alive Hedwig. Thinking back to her first day at this station she realised that her parents, the parents she hadn't seen in years, were just on the other side of the wall.

She realised that being back here could mean so many things. Sirius didn't have to die. Wormtail might not make it to Voldemort. She and Harry didn't have to fall for the Weasley's tricks. She felt her heart swell with joy and tears began pricking her eyes. She quickly wiped them away and followed Harry along the platform.

She and Harry headed to the train and found an empty compartment. They changed into their robes, even though they knew the train wasn't yet moving. Harry explained the reason behind him living in such an extravagant, apparently, the Potter's was one of the richest magical families in Britain, and owned many properties across the world. They were also investors in huge Muggle companies, many of which Hermione recognised.

Hermione also spoke about her previous life with Ron. The beatings, the arguments, everything. With the more things she vented about, Harry showed more outrage on his face, which looked rather comical considering he was now an eleven-year-old child. As she spoke, Hermione felt a lump in her throat. Though her time with Ron was foggy, and she really wasn't too sure of what had happened - she'd left in such a rush - she still remembered the pain, the longing for freedom, her enslavement to Ron. She hadn't really thought when she ran through whatever the small box was with Harry she just did. She thought she should've cared a bit more considering she had left her children behind, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. In her mind they were smoky shadows, small creatures that further bound her to Ron. In a strange way, she slightly resented them. Should she feel guilty for that? She didn't know; now they would never exist, never be tormented by their father or neglected by their mother, maybe it was better for them to never exist to begin with.

It finally hit Hermione that they had travelled back to do things 'properly' so they needed a plan. She voiced this to Harry.

"Well," he began, "Let's cut Voldemort off from the start, let's get Pettigrew at some point this year."

"I guess that means getting in Gryffindor again. That way we can get close to him."

"You know.. I hadn't even considered housing arrangements... I probably would have chosen Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw just to distance myself from Ron" Harry laughed, "Glad you came with me Hermione, or I would have no idea what I'm doing."

Hermione's heart missed a beat. She had really missed her best friend and even though she had more or less ignored him for so long, he seemed to have forgiven her incredibly quickly.

"It'll also probably be nice to have something familiar, no matter what happened after our years here, I always loved Gryffindor house," Harry said.

"Yeah, McGonagall was right when she said they would become like a family," Hermione agreed, "And it'll be good for your reputation."

"I don't really care about that though, Hermione."

"So? Other people do. You don't want to get yourself sorted into Slytherin because people will immediately dub you the next Dark Lord; sure, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw aren't all that bad but if we're trying to fix things, it's probably best that the rest of the wizarding world thinks that you are their Golden Hero Saviour who lived, you know?"

Before Harry could reply, the sound of the door of their compartment opening was heard and in stepped the one person Hermione had dreaded seeing. Ronald Weasley.

"Hey. I heard Harry Potter's on the train. Have you seen him? It'd be so cool to be his friend."

Hermione bowed her head as though trying to hide away from Ronald. Though he was only 11, and though her physical scars would never even exist, he had hurt her emotionally and that would stick with her. Harry stepped in noticing some fear in Hermione's eyes, "Yeah, I know what you mean mate. Let me know if you see him."

"Yeah right," he replied rudely, "if I find him he's mine." With that, he marched off.

"Wow!" Harry laughed. "You'd think I'm some sort of collectable item."

The next 2 hours were more or less uneventful, they spoke and ate and laughed, until 3 people Hermione and Harry had totally forgotten about charged into the compartment.

"You're Harry Potter aren't you?" It didn't seem that Draco needed a scar to recognise people.

"Yes, and you are?"

"Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. Have you considered the house you'll be going into?"

"Well we were both considering Gryffindor," Hermione said; she was treading cautiously, Draco had been rather awful in the previous time-line. Even though he tried to redeem himself, at the end of the day he had been the reason that Death Eaters were able to take over Hogwarts, he had nearly killed Katie Bell and Dumbledore and least of all he had been terribly cruel to Hermione. Considering his case though, Hermione was sure they could prevent that happening again, he was essentially just a boy and the guy stood in front of them hadn't done anything wrong. Yet.

"And you are?" He turned to face Hermione. He wasn't sneering as such, clearly sizing her up, if she was with the Boy-Who-Lived then perhaps she too was worth something.

"Hermione Granger"

"I don't recognise the name. No matter, consider Slytherin. It's the best house in Hogwarts."

"It's also down in the dungeons," Hermione pointed out.

"It's the people that make a house, not the room," Draco replied, "All I'm saying is think about it, it'd do you some good."

"Alright then," Harry said, "Thanks."

With that the boys stepped out of the compartment leaving Harry and Hermione alone. Draco wasn't all bad, he was just a little arrogant, perhaps to cover up anxieties of being alone at Hogwarts, he almost seemed eager to make friends with Harry and Hermione. Of course he wasn't aware of Hermione's blood status, but maybe he could be convinced that it didn't matter.

* * *

A couple of hours later and they had arrived at Hogwarts. Hagrid was outside shouting for the "Firs' Years". Harry and Hermione headed over and got into a boat with Neville, who Harry had seen killed by Bellatrix - so he was pleased to see, and someone else called Terry Boot. They headed over to the castle and once again listened to Professor McGonagall's 'your house is your family' speech'. Then they prepared to enter the Great Hall and prepare for The Sorting.

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 **Please review! Constructive criticism welcomed!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I do not own Harry Potter if I did Harry wouldn't have named his son after someone who had an obsession with his mother. But he did so clearly JK Rowling owns the franchise.**

* * *

As Harry and Hermione walked with the rest of their year into the Great Hall they were once again in awe at the place they had made so many of their friends. Finally, the group stopped and the sorting commenced. When Hermione's name was called she was a lot less nervous than her first time around. She sat in front of the school and the Hat was placed on her head.

 _Welcome back, Mrs Weasley._

Hermione flinched. 'Please don't call me that, I am Hermione Granger and that is how I would like you to refer to me.'

 _As you wish. Gryffindor again then is it?_

'If you could.'

 _Easily._ _ **GRYFFINDOR!**_

Cheers came from the Gryffindor house and she went to be seated. After a while, it was Harry's turn. It seemed to take ages for the sorting to take place for Harry, longer than last time. If the sorting hat was able to recognise her, why wasn't it recognising him? And if it was, why was it taking so long? Finally, the hat shouted _**GRYFFINDOR!**_ And chants of ''WE GOT POTTER!'' came from the Gryffindor table. The seats next to Hermione were taken, so Harry sat opposite her. Looking at the face she was making, he signalled that he would tell her about his conversation with the Sorting Hat afterwards.

When the Sorting was finally over, they once again listened to Dumbledore's lecture about Death lingering around the 3rd-floor corridor. Hermione had her breath taken away. It seemed in her entire life, her love and appreciation of authority figure had never faltered. However when she turned to look at Harry he had a scowl on his face and was looking at the headmaster with - well there was only one word for it - _disgust_. She'd have to question him about it later, clearly he knew something about the headmaster that she didn't, but judging by the frown on his face, she was hoping he was wrong about it.

Eventually, they were excused from dinner and followed Percy up to their dorms. It had been a long day for both Harry and Hermione, so any questions Hermione had for Harry she decided to put off until the next day.

* * *

The next day their first lesson was Transfiguration, this time Harry was with Hermione as one of the first into the lesson. They sat next to each other and it was here Harry revealed that they were able to retain their magical knowledge and abilities since before they had taken the Love Potions (as neither of them had really done any magic while under it). The magical prowess of a 19-year-old was much more than that of an 11-year-old.

Ronald, however, was once again last. McGonagall had already transformed, and the class was already taking notes. He looked over to the seat next to Harry and seemed rather miffed to see it occupied by someone else, namely Hermione. Still, in an attempt to get close to The-Boy-Who-Lived he said, haughtily "Imagine McGonagall's face if she saw how late I was!" He began to laugh but stopped abruptly as the cat on the desk at the front of the classroom became the very professor he was talking about.

"Mr Weasley, I very much doubt you'll have to imagine anything. Why are you so late? Perhaps I should transfigure you into a pocket watch?" A few sniggers were heard around the class.

"I got lost professor." he said timidly, all previous haughtiness lost.

"Well, a map then Weasley. Please take a seat."

After having been given a match only Harry and Hermione managed to turn there's into needles. Most others managed to turn there's silver. Neville Longbottom was not amongst them. Snickering could be heard coming from Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Already finished with his own, Harry went over to help Neville. By the end of the lesson, Neville's match was more of a needle than anyone else's.

After Transfiguration, they had Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry's scar didn't pain him once during the lesson no matter how close he got to Quirell, so he could only assume the Horcrux in his scar wasn't with him. However the lesson, no matter how boring, reminded both Harry and Hermione of another task they had to complete, the Philosopher's Stone. At lunch, they met up outside next to the Black Lake.

"OK Harry, how did you get the stone last time?"

"Well I just looked in the mirror of Erised thinking about the stone I guess. Obviously, after we went through everything on the 3rd Floor. It wasn't the first time I had seen it you know. It was downstairs somewhere before it was moved to the 3rd-Floor. I found it sometime after Dumbledore, gave me back Dad's cloak."

"Well, should we just wait for Dumbledore to give you the cloak again? Nothing really happened between now and Christmas, nothing of any importance."

"THE TROLL ATTACK! I completely forgot Hermione. I'm pretty sure you won't end up in the toilets and get attacked again, but it still gets into the school. Maybe we could tell McGonagall we saw a troll in the girl's bathroom before Quirrell runs in. Do you think she'd believe us?"

"What else could we try? It's worth a shot. On the subject of teachers..."

"You want to know why I seem to dislike Dumbledore" At her nod he continued, "He's the one who gave Ronald and Ginny the idea of feeding you and I those potions. He was also stealing money from one of my vaults since I was around 15, probably thinking I'd allow him to use it to 'fund' the Order. He also sealed up my mum and dad's will. I had it unsealed recently. I was never meant to go to the Dursleys, there were so many options, all those people who could have been my guardians other than Sirius and Frank and Alice Longbottom were available. For some reason, Dumbledore saw fit for me to spend my time with the Dursleys. So obviously my trust and respect in him deteriorated to the point where I despise him."

"That's awful Harry, I can't believe it. Dumbledore.. he's the Leader of Light, how could he be so selfish and cruel?"

There was a silence between them. Hermione's admiration of Dumbledore was clearly shattered and Harry could see how conflicted her emotions were. Sooner than they expected, they realised it was almost time for Potions. They ran back into the castle and arrived in the classroom with 5 minutes to spare.

Unfortunately, there weren't many seats left, so Harry ended up next to Ron and Hermione with Neville. Just then a swish of robes was heard as Snape spun into the room. Harry didn't know why he hadn't realised how theatrical Snape was. Severus proceeded to give his boring, and clearly untrue speech about 'bottling fame' and 'brewing glory'. Harry was so bored he had forgotten about Snape's pop quiz.

"Mr Potter. Seeing as you have decided to blatantly ignore me, answer this. What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood." he said smugly, unaware of the surprise Harry had in store for him.

"A sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death."

"And where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" he asked clearly annoyed.

"The stomach of a goat. It'll cure you of most poisons"

"What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane" He was now blatantly irritated.

"Nothing. They're the same plant. It can also go by the name of aconite"

"Why have you been going so far ahead into the syllabus Mr Potter? That's 5 points from Gryffindor."

Snape began the lesson from this point quite miffed the entire time. He didn't even bother spending time criticising the Gryffindors. Harry himself was in a slightly bad mood. Potions was a bad enough lesson, to begin with, but with Ron trying to become his 'friend' it was rather hard not to get irritated. Harry was ignoring Ron so much, Ron decided to go a different way in getting Harry's attention. He didn't have enough time to attempt it though because the lesson was over and Harry shot out of the class like a bullet, with that Mud-Blood Granger.

The Weasley's may have been named as Blood-Traitors, but Ronald was not one of them. He knew he was superior to most of the other students, even if they were doing better than him so far. He'd even managed to get his sister to see the same way. At least he wasn't alone in the house-hold. His other brothers, even Percy, didn't believe that Mud-Bloods were filthy. He felt so trapped and constricted around them. He was glad to have such an understanding sister. His mum understood to, but she could never act upon her beliefs it wouldn't look good for the family. Apparently, based on what Dumbledore had told her, Harry was bought up by abusive muggles, it should be easy to get Harry on the right path. All he needed was a plan of action.

* * *

Thanks for reading. Please leave a review, I'm open to ideas and constructive criticism. I will reply to all Reviews.


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own Harry Potter. If I did it'd make no sense for Molly to ask how to get on the platform after having been through the process so many times before. But she did. JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, not me.**

* * *

The moment Potions was over Harry ran out of the classroom after grabbing Hermione's arm. He couldn't stand much more of Ronald. It was sickly how he fawned over Harry, chasing him around like a puppy after a ball.

"Harry, slow down!" Hermione panted, it seemed her 11-year-old body wasn't nearly as agile as she would have hoped.

"Sorry, I just needed to get out of there.."

"It's ok Harry. I saw the way Ron was treating you. Let's head back to the common room."

Harry still hadn't let go of Hermione's hand, so they ambled, arms swinging back to the Gryffindor common room.

"It's strange Harry," Hermione said when they arrived back in the common room, "I feel like we act like children but we're both adults, in our late 30s. I mean we aren't even acting like we are 19 or 20, which would make sense considering the potion, but we act like we are actually 11."

"I think that might be a side-effect of coming back to here. Maybe because we are now 11-years-old our brain acts like it. I'm not really sure how we time-travelled. Either we ended up in a universe that is simply slower than ours and have stolen the bodies of 11-year-old us, or we ourselves have rewound the universe going back to this point. I'm not really sure, but if it's the former, it would explain why we sometimes act so young."

"I guess so," Hermione shrugged and flopped backwards on the couch. Since they had come back, she had been so tired all the time. Even Harry seemed a little gone out, but it had only been a few days, perhaps the exhaustion would wear off.

* * *

Ronald Weasley was thinking. This was a rare thing for Ron and didn't suit him at all. If someone had an x-ray camera, that could look at the cogs in his brain, they would see rusty clockwork, slowly doing the job it was in there for, thinking. Anyway, Ronald Weasley was thinking. Thinking of how to get that blasted mud-blood away from Harry. He'd tried numerous things in the past month, claiming a teacher needed her usually meant Harry went along too, ignoring her certainly didn't work for every time he tried to form a conversation with just Harry, Hermione would somehow get involved, nosy-git. Honestly, the only way he could get her away from his prize would have to be something short of murder.

Then Ronald had a stroke of 'genius'. Hermione looked like a night troll if you asked Ronald, so why not get her to join her family from the mountains. It'd take a lot of work, but to get his hands on the Boy-Who-Lived, Ron would do anything.

* * *

 _ **October 31st The Great Hall**_

The Halloween feast came and went, by the time Harry and Hermione got to the Gryffindor tower, they realised they hadn't informed Professor McGonagall about the troll. The weird thing was, neither had Quirrell. They didn't know whether to pass this off as coincidence or suspicious. Deciding everything had to go carefully in this timeline made it definitely suspicious. Seeing as it was past curfew, they couldn't exactly head to her office and make claims about seeing a mountain troll, if there wasn't any proof of seeing it. After all, they were two 11-year-olds, was she ever actually going to believe them?

Two days later and Hermione found she woke up incredibly early. It was Saturday so she was free to head back to sleep, but found that she couldn't. Unbeknownst to her was that a certain Ronald Weasley had put two potions in her drink, one was a Wide-Eye Potion, designed to keep the drinker awake, the other a flushing charm. Hermione was now desperate for the toilet. She found the one in the girls' dormitories occupied which she found unusual but really had no time to think about. She hadn't wet herself in around 35 years, she certainly wasn't about to now. She rushed out of the Lion's Tower and straight for the nearest bathroom, thanking every great witch or wizard she could think of that it was unoccupied. 30 minutes later and she stepped out of the stall sheepishly. She knew no one was around, but 30 minutes on the toilet was quite embarrassing, she blamed it on the mince pies she'd had at dinner yesterday. She was about to wash her hands when she heard a large _**CRASH!**_

Out of the rubble, stood a large, nearly naked, ugly and extremely stinky troll. Typical, Hermione thought, late for his appointment by two days. She wasn't nearly as worried this time as she was last time. In the years spent with Ron she may not have done much magic, but abstaining from that potion felt like waking up from a nightmare, all her magical abilities were retained from when she was around 19. Even as a young adult, Hermione had been a very powerful witch.

Before the oaf in front of her could even raise its club, she shot 13 spells, each one different, and each one with a different effect. Hermione actually found herself enjoying this, the troll was an easy enemy, and he was soon unconscious on the floor. Hermione hadn't realised in all her fun she had obtained two witnesses, one Harry James Potter, watching on with a smirk on his face, it seemed she didn't need him to come help her anymore. The second was Professor McGonagall, who had just witnessed a spectacle, a first-year student, still in their first term in Hogwarts, using spells she'd only heard of in her 6th and 7th year, against a troll and winning. The fact that Mr Potter next to her was unfazed by this led her to the conclusion, that these two knew more than they were letting on.

* * *

As McGonagall walked the two first years to her office, she noticed them communicating in a way it seemed no one else would ever understand. With simple eye movements and hand gestures, they seemed to be having a conversation. She was still not able to let what she had seen sink in. A child, one who was barely 12 had defeated a troll, like a child breaking a toy they no longer want, while another child stood there clearly confident that the former child could handle the mountain dweller. She was so deep in thought she almost missed her office entirely. She sat down and indicated for the two children to sit opposite her.

Hermione and Harry had been seriously discussing whether or not to tell Professor McGonagall about their time adventure. Having an adult on their side would be beneficial, someone to ask for advice, someone to trust, someone who could help. Then again how could they make her believe them? They could bombard her with facts about the past, but all that could mean was that they had read a history book or two. And that's when Harry remembered something that would he was gifted by the very lioness in front of him.

 ***** FLASHBACK *****

 **April 15th, 2015**

Harry had been staying at Potter Manor for around 2 weeks. He had found out about Ginny just over a year ago. Ron had set up an attack against him almost one month later. That was it. Harry needed to change what had happened. When he broke free from the potion he was like a lion. She was so scared by his outburst she confessed. Not only her own atrocities but those of her mother, Dumbledore and her brother. The constant stealing from his vaults, the potions, the lying, the scheming, all of it. Unfortunately for him, before he could rescue Hermione he was attacked in the room he had rented out in the Leaky Cauldron. It was brutal. He saw a few faces, amongst them, were Ronald, Percy and Molly. Harry was tired and alone. It was an uphill struggle from the start. He apparated immediately to the only person he still trusted, Minerva McGonagall. He had visited her over the years and he found her to be a very motherly figure, not like Molly who was imposing and demeaning, but kind, firm, strict and fair.

When she found out what happened, she offered her home to him, where he had been staying for quite a while, and she was perfectly happy to keep him being alive a secret. Over those few months, they shared a lot of stories, memories and their bond grew. In this time Harry became like a son to McGonagall and so she passed to him an heirloom of her family, after all, she had no children of her own. It was a chain to be worn on the wrist imbued with protections and much magic.

* * *

The wearer of the chain could not be forced to take it off and it would remain with them throughout all there travels - including those through time. So while having lost the clothing and objects he had owned in his past life, Harry still had a disillusioned chain worn around his wrist.

Now sat in her office, having already decided to tell her only certain things, Harry and Hermione were prepared to talk.

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 **Thanks for reading, please review and I will try to reply to as many as possible!**


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry I've spent so long off, I've had plenty of exams to get over. It's the holidays now though so I'll try to post as often as I can.

I don't own Harry Potter if I did Sirius would have had a fair trial, but he didn't so JK Rowling owns him. Merry Christmas to those that celebrate!

* * *

 _ ***BEFORE THE SCHOOL YEAR***_

 _ **POP**_

'That must be Dumbledore' Molly thought to herself. She had been expecting his visit, after all, Harry Potter would be arriving at Hogwarts this coming year. She had been a great help to him over the years, though she didn't let it on, she was an incredibly intelligent woman and provided Dumbledore with much of the information he had needed over the years. She was glad her youngest son could be of use to her boss, her other sons didn't seem to understand what filth mud-bloods and muggles were. She didn't outright ask them their views on the lower class, but slow and subtle tests over the years certainly proved that for all their brains, they could not see what a disgrace the non-magical species were upon the earth, and for some god-forsaken reason her husband was obsessed with the scum. It also seemed that the apple of her eyes, Ginny, was coming round to her way of thinking, thank Merlin.

"I'm in here Albus," she called. He strode in, his long beard trailing behind him.

"Molly," he began, "You, of course, know why I'm here. Harry Potter will soon be at Hogwarts and I, of course, need him close to me. You already know how awful his childhood has been, it'll be easy to look to me as a guardian and without many friends in his life, we can bring Ron into the picture. When Ginny joins in his second year we can probably bring her closer to him as well."

The day continued with much discussion about the future of a boy who didn't even realise the world these two villains lived in was real. It was also this day that Ronald Weasley finally got to meet the man his mother had told him so much would be Ronald's guide, assisting him should he need any help with increasing his proximity to Harry Potter.

 _ ***After Potions October 30th***_

Ronald slowly walked up to Dumbledore's office. The password was, as usual, food-related to make it easier for Ron to remember. He walked into the office prepared to do whatever it took to get Harry Potter away from the mud-blood. Dumbledore too was planning a way of getting rid of her. She seemed to be the obstacle between the friendship he needed Ronald and Harry to have. He found no reason to expel her, she was a model student, completing her classwork and homework to a very high ability with no behavioural complaints from any of her teachers. Called out of his musings, he heard slow heavy footsteps and emerging from the hallway came the red-haired child.

"Yes, Mr Weasley" Dumbledore said.

"Need a troll or like a creature or something like that." No explanation - typical of the boy thought Dumbledore. Not knowing whether he would regret it or not, Dumbledore inquired further.

"Whatever for?"

"Oh right. To hurt Hermione. I figured if she got hurt enough or maybe killed, I don't really care, her parents would have to pull her from the school or maybe she'd be so scared she would take herself out. I mean, not even she can get rid of a troll." Dumbledore saw some truth and a small amount of intelligence from Weasley's logic. She may have been the smartest witch of her age, but the boy was right when he said even she, being an eleven-year-old couldn't defeat a troll. The old professor had already resigned himself to knowing he couldn't expel her, she was a model student and seemed impossible to frame. So, deciding that he himself had no better ideas Dumbledore, disguised in clothing less garish than he would usually wear headed to Knockturn Alley and hired someone to bring a troll into school. It would be unfortunate if a few of Hogwarts protective wards just happened to be down on the day of its arrival day. Dumbledore found he didn't really care if any other students got hurt in the attack, it would simply seem like Hermione was less targeted than it might otherwise appear.

* * *

Dumbledore was now sat in his office preparing to be called down to maybe the girls' bathroom or one of the corridors to find out that Hermione Granger had been seriously injured in an awful attack brought on by a rogue troll that had somehow arrived in the school. What a pity it would be. He'd probably have to send some form of a letter to her parents if she didn't die to have her moved from the school, and then, of course, there would be Harry. Without his filthy friend, he would need consolation from his new friend Ronald. who hopefully wouldn't screw things up, and himself. He'd also have to get round to giving Harry his father's cloak, maybe as a Christmas present. Not in person, however, he couldn't be seen showing favouritism, but perhaps he could write his name on it unlike in his previous plan, so as to bring Harry closer to him.

Dumbledore was going to have to wait all night for the message about Hermione's untimely demise as she had of course defeated and vanished the creature who had tried and failed to attack her.

* * *

Now sat opposite her were two of her favourite most intelligent cubs, clearly more intelligent than she had first wagered. Clearly unsure of what to say to them, Harry noticed and began the conversation. He explained Dumbledore's and the Weasley's treachery, the time travel and his and Hermione's retaining of memories and abilities. Unsurprisingly she was sceptical of what the 11-year-old had told her so Harry told her one story more. Of an old woman on her death-bed presenting her son in all but blood, a chain imbued with protective magic. Upon inspection, Minerva realised this was the same chain she wore upon her own wrist. She felt almost compelled to believe them, and she did. Hermione had shown a great feat of magic that no child, no matter how intelligent should be able to do, and Harry carried a chain that he shouldn't have even known about.

"Professor, you have to understand that you can't tell anyone about this," Harry said, breaking the silence, "Especially not Dumbledore."

After the initial shock of the news that had been revealed to her, she allowed rage to overcome her towards Albus, the two youngest Weasley's and herself for not removing Harry from the Dursleys' when she could. She made herself calm down, forcing angry tears to retreat, and then they began to put a plan in place. It was Minerva's job to more or less spy and Dumbledore, somehow prove utmost loyalty to him (which would be a lot harder due to her now undiluted anger), she hadn't been told about everything simply the abuse down by Dumbledore and the Weasleys, she didn't need to know all the facts. Bringing her into this was risky Harry and Hermione knew, they couldn't have her slipping something about how much they knew about the future but some help would be useful. They also knew they could trust their Head of House, she had rarely failed them and cared for them dearly. After adequate planning and conversation, the two Gryffindors headed up to bed satisfied.

* * *

The next day Ronald awoke to see Harry's bed empty, assuming that meant someone had called him about the mud-blood Ronald went down to the Great Hall with an almost literal spring in his step. A spring which almost snapped in two when he saw the bushy-haired freak still sat next to his best friend. Ronald was prepared to go over and begin screaming at her but his stomach began to rumble and he realized how hungry he was. He sat down angrily and began devouring most of the food at the table. He was focusing on the food and eating at such a speed that he didn't notice his best friend leave the table. He also didn't notice him walk towards the staff table. He also didn't notice him begin to speak to Professor Dumbledore, but that didn't matter, Ron was hungry and nothing should get in the way of his food, not even The-Boy-Who-Lived.

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 **Just updated this chapter, hope you think its better than it was before even though the changes are small, if you have any ideas or criticism for any of the future chapters please feel free to let me know!**


	8. Chapter 8

I do not own Harry Potter. If I did Remus would've had some sort of contact with Harry during the 10 years he spent at the Dursleys. Alas 'tis not canon, JKR owns this franchise.

* * *

Dumbledore was delighted after Harry Potter left the staff table. _He_ had been the one to ask Dumbledore for a meeting. Albus felt like a young fan-girl whose celebrity crush had just asked her on a date. Perhaps he wouldn't need such strong loyalty potions as they had initially expected for him. It seemed that due Dumbledore's idea to provide Harry with a lack of a caring guardian, Harry was already turning towards Dumbledore. This was perfect and left him with a smile on his face, even as he watched the boy leave with his buck-toothed friend. He began to count the benefits of this meeting. It would be a chance for him to bond with the boy providing him with some sort of light snack imbued with potions while they spoke. He could compare how alike he was to his parents, Dumbledore very much doubted the Dursleys' had provided Harry with much information on his parents, and it was unlikely any of the teachers had spoken to him about them, even a snippet of information would be worth Harry's entire vault at Gringotts to the youth. It would be simple to trick the boy into almost worshipping Dumbledore.

Harry and Hermione had decided that they should try and get back the Invisibility Cloak, it would come in much use later. They also required the Marauders' Map, but they could acquire that at a later point, they both knew Hogwarts almost like the back of their hands. Even if they hadn't needed the cloak, it still belonged to Harry and was a family heirloom that he had every right in retrieving. Hermione reminded him for the tenth time over that he needed to be as polite as possible and was not allowed to lose his cool, no matter what Dumbledore did or said. Though she tried to hide it, Hermione was legitimately afraid that Harry would return to her a vegetable who could only spew propaganda-like nonsense in complete support of Dumbledore. She had made several more relationships with people in and out of their group, but Harry was her first real friend here and she couldn't bear to lose him. Both she and Harry knew, how Gryffindor Harry was; one slip of the tongue and all of their plans could come crashing down, so of course Hermione was anxious, she could lose her friend and if she did lose Harry, she would probably lose her mind.

Hermione was to remain in the Gryffindor common room awaiting the arrival of her fellow Gryffindor after his meeting. She sat down in an armchair near the window and began to read, hoping to distract herself from Harry's adventure.

* * *

Harry confidently walked up the stairs leading to Dumbledore's office, he could practically feel Dumbledore's glee as he believed the Chosen One was already sitting in his lap. As Harry stepped on an especially creaky floorboard, Albus turned and smiled at Harry, his eyes twinkling with the same look the Leader of Light was so famous for. "Sit Harry," Dumbledore gestured to a chair opposite him, and Harry walked over and sat in the chair. "You look a lot like-"

"Professor," Harry interrupted "I didn't come here to talk about how alike my parents and I look. I came to get something of theirs'".

"Really Harry?" Dumbledore said in a patronising tone. He was trying to hide his shock at being interrupted by the young boy, and his fear that he wanted -

"My father's invisibility cloak," Harry had already weaved a story with Hermione the night before of how he came to know about the cloak. She made him practise his small speech until it was perfectly believable, she needed everything to be perfect and Harry could clearly see her worry so he complied. "You see," he began "When I found out I was a wizard, and Hermione found out she was a witch, she decided to help me learn more about my parents. After all, I had been told that they were drunkards who had killed themselves in a traffic accident. Either way, we stumbled upon some information that told us my dad had a cloak that allowed him to become invisible. When I later went to Gringotts with Hagrid, they said it wasn't there and that you had removed. So, I'm here to thank you for taking care of it, and I am asking for it back."

"Harry would you like a lemon drop?" Harry was astonished at the senility of the man before him. It was as though everything Harry had said was being ignored, he had expected some condescension and arrogance, but was the old man really just going to ignore him? Realising that he was becoming quickly heated, Harry refocused on the sweet bowl Albus had pushed in front of him. He was perfectly aware that Dumbledore's lemon drops would probably have more ingredients than just lemons and sugar and as he saw Dumbledore reach out to take one of his own, Harry realised the old fool was probably on neutraliser potions, what he didn't know was that Harry had been on them as well since he had arrived in this timeline, so he picked one and began to suck on it.

The offering of the lemon drops was simply Dumbledore's way of hiding his shock at Harry's knowledge of this and anger that he may have to return it sooner than he would have liked. He still had quite a few plans for the rather magnificent cloak.

"Like I was saying Professor, might I have my cloak back?"

"Unfortunately, I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about my dear boy. Perhaps whoever really has it will give it to you at a time that they believe is best." Harry now tried his backup plan, the Guilt Trip. With his saddest puppy eyes and longest face, he said: "I do hope so, I'm so glad I can trust you, Professor, I know you would never lie to me." Harry seemed so genuinely naive and loyal that Dumbledore shifted around in his seat, subconsciously Dumbledore began reaching for the desk that had the cloak in it, unknowingly alerting Harry of where it was. "Yes well, I'm sure it will be returned to you shortly, you may return to your activities for the day." As Dumbledore dismissed the young Potter, he missed the smirk on Harry's face. Content, Harry began the journey back to Hermione. It was odd, Harry noticed, he easily fit back into the role of an 11-year-old boy again, he was 40 really, but he certainly wasn't acting like it. Perhaps his earlier theory had been correct, perhaps he was simply switching between himself and his younger self. Maybe it was better like this, he didn't need to worry about his cover being blown so much if he seemed like an actual child. Besides, it was relaxing, he didn't have to worry about anything, grieve over anything, overthink anything. Harry, even though neither he nor Hermione had made any major fixes to the time-line, was happy.

* * *

Ron couldn't find his best friend anywhere. He'd checked all his favourite places, the great hall and the ... well that was about it. He hadn't seen him since breakfast. He decided to check the dorms when he saw the buck-toothed girl in the window curled up with a book alone. He puffed out his chest and strutted towards her, prepared to give her a piece of his mind. "Listen up, Granger," his voice was loud and several people looked over. Slightly startled, Hermione looked up to see the ginger glaring at her.

"What?" she replied, not bothering with manners for the Weasel.

"You are going to stay away from my friend. He's not yours, he never will be yours so you need to keep away from him," he spat. For a moment Hermione was quite confused. No-one really hung around Ronald that much, at dinner time he was a bit too enthusiastic about food, his hygiene wasn't exactly the best and his constant talk of quidditch was getting really tedious.

"Your friend?" Ron clearly took this as an attack on his relationship with the Boy-Who-Lived, so he took a large step forward and stared down at her.

"Yes, **my** friend. Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived, **my** friend." Hermione nearly burst into peals of laughter. Harry and Ron spent almost no time together. Harry spent more time trying to avoid Ron than Ron spent trying to attract Harry's attention.

"Right," she said sarcastically, "What are you going to do if I don't cut off all communication with your friend, Harry."

"I'll.. I'll," Ron looked for some strength he had over the mudblood, he couldn't duel her, he was simply a "late-bloomer" as his mother put it so he wouldn't be able to defeat her there.. then it hit him. He was at least a foot taller than her, he could easily be better in a physical fight. "I'll beat you up," he said confidently.

"No you will not Ronald," Harry growled. He had just walked through the portrait hole to see the last few moments of the encounter. He edged around the lanky boy, grabbed hold of Hermione's shaking hand and led her to the Room of Requirement.

"Are you alright, Hermione?" Harry asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied. Her face was pale and she hadn't really stopped shaking. "I'm fine," she mumbled. She looked up at Harry, who could clearly tell that she wasn't fine, he hadn't let go of her hand and his face was blatantly asking for her to speak to him.

"Hermione, you are my best friend, you can always speak to me, you know that."

"It's stupid. It was just his voice and the threats, it was so similar to before. I know he can't do anything, he's 11, but it just sounded so alike to when we were older."

"Hermione, that isn't stupid, of course that would affect you like that. You needn't worry though, I'd never let him hurt you again." He embraced her and as he did, Hermione cried. She let everything come out. She had missed so many years of her life because of that man, he had weakened her. She wanted to be confident and alive like she was before but in just 4 words, he had managed to bring it all to the ground. She cried because she was mourning, she was mourning her lack of life. She cried because she was infuriated, at those who caused her to lose her life. She cried because through it all, she had come out the other side. She cried because she was relieved, relieved to have Harry, to be herself again, even if it wasn't exactly the girl she had been before.

They sat together like this for a while, close, ignoring the passage of time, forgetting the world outside, simply sharing in each-others memories.

* * *

Dumbledore called his pet Snape to his office. He needed to discuss a few more potions that were needed for his plans. Harry seemed to trust Dumbledore wholeheartedly, which Dumbledore presumed came from his lemon drops and brilliant plans, however he couldn't risk any outbursts or any questions about Dumbledore's actions, therefore more loyalty potions would be needed, along with some that could potentially cause a certain rift in the friendship of the Chosen One and his mud-blood friend. They would have to somehow get Ronald close enough perhaps. Maybe he could offer him a snack or just slip it into Harry's food. It didn't matter how it was done, as long as it happened. Somehow he would have to lure Harry to the Mirror of Erised, or he would potentially find it himself. Maybe it was time to give him his invisibility cloak, hopefully, he would use it for some late night strolls. If he positioned Snape or Filch in certain areas, he was sure he could get the boy to somehow find himself in the Mirror's room. Things finally seemed to be going Dumbledore's way.

* * *

Thanks for reading, and please leave a review!

Edit: Just finished editing this chapter, I definitely think that the confrontation between Hermione and Ron is a lot better and I hope you guys do too!


	9. Chapter 9

**I do not own the Harry Potter Franchise: If I did Teddy Tonks would have had his parents to grow up with. Come to think of it, so would Harry.**

 **Sorry, I have been off for a while I've had exams, illnesses and holidays but hopefully the uploads will become more frequent. Thanks for the comments, they really help me when I forget to include certain things.**

* * *

While in the Room of Requirement, Hermione recalled the extended length of time Harry had spent with the Sorting Hat back in September and forwarded to ask him about it.

 *****FLASHBACK*****

Harry seated himself on the stool at the front of the Great Hall, not nearly as nervous as last time. He'd been through all this before. As the hat was placed upon him it seemed so big it covered his eyes and nearly engulfed his whole head.

"Welcome back Mr Potter," came the gruff voice of the hat.

"Good to be back," Harry smiled.

"I am more than certain you would like to join your fellow time-traveller in Gryffindor. I still believe you could have done wonders in Slytherin." It was as though the hat tried to mumble the last part, but it is very hard to hide your speech from someone when sat on their head.

"Now before I announce your House, are you aware of all of your titles, this excludes those of Potter and Black?"

Harry was shocked. In wizarding Society holding even one lordship was incredible, never mind two from Ancient and Noble Houses, and still, there were more.

"You have defeated Thomas Riddle multiple times, nonetheless, your first defeat of him, at the age of one, was when you first earned the title of Lord Slytherin, so technically people were right in suspecting you were the Heir of Slytherin in a sense. You also inherited from your father's side of the family Lord Gryffindor, a title that has not been honoured in a while but you could try to bring forth both of these titles. Lords and Ladies of any houses of Hogwarts have not been seen for some time, this would most likely make you also the Lord of Hogwarts."

Taking a moment, Harry allowed the information to sink in. He held so much power, not only magically but politically too. He was never able to get into politics during his time as an auror, then as he had to lay low with Minerva he was more focused on the fact that he was alive, than any political wars the wizarding world may have been having. He wasn't truly a child though, he was certain this would help progress his and Hermione's efforts towards changing the Time Line; political power in the wizarding world was one of the strongest powers you could have.

"Another thing, please beware of the Weasley family this time. I believe the Headmaster assumes I spend the rest of the year asleep. He freely talks in front of me about his plans. The Weasley woman is very fond of him and I believe they plan to make you an Honorary Weasley **™,** as if they don't have enough children already. Love potions are to be given to you, they should be attached to a Ginevra Weasley. Loyalty potions keyed to Dumbledore and Mr. Weasley; if I were you, I'd avoid any food, drink or sweet they offer you."

"How am I supposed to survive the year? It's Dumbledore's school, I can't eat nothing."

"He can't potion your food, Harry. How could he not trust that another child would take your food and fall madly in love with the young Weasley or become passionately supportive of Dumbledore or the Weasley? Parents or siblings would get suspicious."

"Yet I have neither so noone would notice a change."

"Exactly. They are willing to wait and see if you are simply drawn to that family, if you bond with their son and daughter and most likely end up the newest addition to the family. The best thing for you to do, steer clear unless absolutely necessary."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Well then. Goodbye Mr Potter. _**GRYFFINDOR**_!"

* * *

"Well," Hermione began, "it's a good thing the Hat's on our side, being able to read our thoughts would've meant he could easily tell Dumbledore everything."

"We could try and speak to him some more when we go to take the cloak back," Harry thought aloud.

"We'd need quite a bit of time, wouldn't we?"

"I guess so." Harry thought for a while, "I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it."

* * *

The Headmaster had just returned from Snape's den and was waiting for the arrival of the youngest Weasley male. He was unsure of Harry's likes and dislike's in food but considering he had already eaten some lemon drops, which seemed to be very much enjoyed by the boy, he imbued a large handful with several potions. A loyalty potion keyed to him, and a potion of aggression and repelling towards Hermione Granger. That girl only ever got in the way. If she wasn't there, Ronald and Harry would most likely be the closest of friends. Harry would be in the palm of his hand. Harry would be his. But no, nothing in life comes easy. Finally, Ronald sluggishly dragged his feet into the room.

There were a lot of stairs leading up to Dumbledore's office and Ron had had to go up all of them. However, he wasn't too tired to not notice the small bag of sweets on Albus' desk; he picked up the pace and sat opposite the Leader of Light.

Disappointment soon filled Ron's mind and stomach. These sweets weren't for him, but for his best mate. _Well_ , Ron thought as he trudged his way back down the stairs, paper bag in hand, _he wouldn't mind if I ate a few, what he doesn't know won't hurt him._

And slowly the potion began to do its work.

* * *

 _ **One Week Later**_

The first flying lesson of the year was coming up and Harry was determined not to end up on the Quidditch team this year, it was a waste of time and would seriously push back what he and Hermione were planning. Sure he enjoyed flying but Quidditch was brutal and tiring.

He and Hermione and developed quite strong friendships with more Gryffindors than last time. They spent some time tutoring Neville and getting to know him, he didn't need to bring his Rememberall wherever he went anymore as he had stopped second-guessing himself. Harry also found that he could relax a bit more with Dean and Seamus, they understood balancing school work and free time and didn't try to stop others from getting near Harry like a certain red-head used to constantly do, they were friends with Ronald, but Harry couldn't bring himself to in anyway develop a relationship around that boy.. Hermione was also making friends, being less insecure this time meant she was less bossy and was able to relate more to the girls in her dorm like Parvarti, Lavender and Fay. The 11 year old Lavender wasn't necessarily the one in the previous timeline writing to Ron. Hermione was willing to give her that chance.

Because Neville had no rememberall with him, they expected no problems that day. Until Ron Weasley walked onto the pitch with a book in his hand.

"Hey, Mudblood" Ron called as he walked onto the pitch, "Look what I've got." As he said so Hermione realised it was her notes of all of her and Harry's plans. Sure they could remember them but if anyone found those notes who was on Dumbledore's side they would be screwed. Ronald knew his leader was contemptuous of the brat, maybe taunting her, causing a ruckus, potentially causing her to fight back could get rid of her.

Ron flew up, but having never learnt how to use a broom landed straight into a tree. The journal flew out of his hands and Harry skyrocketed upwards to catch it. Before his feet had even hit the ground McGonagall strode onto the pitch. After giving Ron a good verbal bashing for flying without supervision, she turned to Harry and asked him to follow her inside. It was then that Madam Hooch finally arrived on the pitch.

Hermione watched on with a smirk, it seemed that there were some things they couldn't change.

* * *

That night as Harry got into bed he felt a soft package, he pulled it out from under his pillow and attached to it was a note with familiar writing.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _As we are getting closer to Christmas I realised I would be needing a winter cloak. It took me completely by surprise, I found your father's cloak! Funny how these things happen. Make sure you don't get into too much trouble! Hope you're enjoying the sweets your friend Ron is sharing with you. I'm sure you're becoming fast friends._

 _Early Merry Christmas,_

 _Dumbledore._

Sweets? Never mind that. Harry had the Invisibility Cloak. Whatever Dumbledore's ulterior motives were, he had just helped Harry and Hermione's plans tenfold.

* * *

Just updated this chapter, way longer, I think its better, please let me know!

Thanks for Reading!


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to one of the guest reviewers who gave me the new summary for** **the story. Thanks for all of the reviews and ideas. Sorry that so much time is taken between each chapter - for some reason my school thinks it is acceptable to give us exams every two weeks.**

 **The new T rating is for this chapter - nothing too bad happens, it's just for safety.**

 **I don't own Harry Potter - but if I said I did, what would you do about it?**

* * *

It was the last Tuesday before the Christmas holidays: Harry and Hermione were sat in the Library going over the plans for those holidays.

"So he just gave you the Invisibility cloak?" Hermione asked, surprised at Dumbledore's sudden change of heart.

"Yeah, I guess this means that we can move forward going to the Mirror to during the holidays," Harry paused, "Hermione I want you to go home for Christmas."

"What? I thought I was here to help you!" Hermione near shouted, shocked at Harry for trying to send her home.

"You are Hermione, and you have helped me - a lot. But you haven't seen your parents since you obliviated them and sent them to Australia. That was like 20 years ago. I don't have anyone to go back to, but you do, and I'm sure they've missed you for the past 3 months. You'll come back and we can destroy the stone here together."

"Oh, I guess I forgot." Hermione replied meekly, "Are you sure you'll be fine here, alone with the Weasley's?"

"I'll manage, its only two weeks."

"And you're sure you know where the mirror is."

"Hermione, it may sound kind of ridiculous but I visited that room, even after the mirror was removed. It was the first place I saw my parents. I even went there before my last fight with Voldemort.."

"Harry that's not ridiculous at all," Hermione affirmed.

* * *

 **WEDNESDAY**

Ronald Weasley slowly trudged his way up the stone steps to Dumbledore's office. At least while he was home for Christmas he wouldn't have to deal with all these stairs just to meet with some old man. After what felt like a lifetime he finally arrived at the door to the Headmaster's office. He swung open the door without knocking and barged in almost missing his mother. His mother? He looked up again at Dumbledore's desk and saw her stood next to him. Completely thrown off by her appearance in his office, he missed how close the two of them were positioned, or that his mother's top button was open on her dress, or the fact that both of them were blushing, with what he thought was anger, but Ron being the idiot that he was completely missed what the true meaning was.

 _ *****FLASHBACK*****_

 _A young Molly Prewett, at the age of 16 was headed to her favourite class, Transfiguration. Sure she would be failing if not for her teacher - Professor Dumbledore, or as she got to call him alone, Albus - allowing her grades to rise with some 'Extra Credit'. He was very nice to her, but she knew she could never tell about the treats he gave her, some of which she returned. She had heard rumours of a 7th Year who supposedly fancied her, maybe for public image, he would have to do._

* * *

"Ronald!" Molly exclaimed.

"What?" he replied gruffly.

"We've called you here Mr Weasley, to discuss your arrangements for the upcoming holiday," Dumbledore began.

"Why? I'm going home. Me,Percy, George, Fred. We're all going home... ain't we?" Ron gaped at each of them, if he had to stay here, where would he get his mum's mince pies or to spend time with his favourite sibling?

"Ron, would you say Harry Potter is your friend?" Molly asked.

"Well I dunno do I? He's always around that stinky mudblood so I never get the chance to hang around him."

"Well," Mrs Weasley started, "She will be heading home for Christmas. So, if your here with Harry while he's all alone, I'm sure you'll get closer, and even convince him to get rid of that buck-toothed bi-"

"Finally," Ron jumped in, "But if I'm staying so are Percy, George and Fred."

"Fine," Molly said, "As long as it keeps you here."

* * *

Friday had finally arrived and Harry and Hermione were once again sat in the Room of Requirement; the train didn't leave for another few hours and they had nothing better to do than sit and talk.

"Hermione?" Harry began.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Before all of..." Harry gestured around the room, "this, this time-travel, restarting, before all of it, I had plenty of time to think over my decision to leave. I had noone left. My children believed me dead and I had no way of getting to them, I had no friends they were either dead, missing, traitors or under the effects of a potion. McGonagall had been dead for a few months as well. I had nothing to lose. I planned on coming back here, on my own making sure that noone else ever got hurt, ever again. When you showed up, you had only just come out of the effects of that potion, you still had a life, Hermione, children who loved you and maybe even the ability to keep going, are you sure it was the right decision to come with me?"

"Do you not want me to be here, with you, Harry?"

"That's not what I mean, Hermione. It's just that you had the potential to continue your life, you still left things behind, why?"

"Because you were also my only living friend. The few moments I thought you were dead were a living hell, Harry. I don't want to live without you by my side because you are my best and closest friend. This will probably sound horribly cruel, but I can't feel any pity for the children I left behind. This way they were never born, this way they were never abused and this way they were never neglected. I can barely even say that I loved them and they were my own kids but I never got to know them, never asked them how school was going, how there day was going, what they wanted to do during the holidays. They spent the holidays they could at Hogwarts and that was so much better for them than coming home. Now, by the end of the day, I'll get to see my parents again for the first time in over 2 decades. Yes, I made a very rash decision, I just decided to come with you on the spot, as though we were moving to Spain not through time, but I have no regrets, I feel happier now, now that there aren't the same burdens I had before weighing me down. So Harry, all I can really say to you is thank you, thank you for bringing me along and practically saving me from a life of torture." She smiled. The biggest and brightest smile she'd smiled in years, and Harry smiled too, happy he had such a wonderful friend as Hermione.

A few hours later and Harry was waving Hermione off as she got on the carriage that would take her to the train returning to her parents. As the carriage drew further away Harry felt pangs of sadness in his chest at watching her go, but he swallowed them down and walked back to the palace, ready to bear the Weasels and take on the next day, the day where he would finally retrieve the Philosopher's stone.

* * *

 **Chapter updated and better than before! Thanks for reading, please review.**


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't own Harry Potter, if I had HEDWIG WOULD STILL BE ALIVE - but nooooooooo JKR had to own the series.**

* * *

Sat in the Great Hall for breakfast on Friday morning, Ron opened the letter in front of him not caring how much food fell onto it while he shovelled half of the table down his throat. He didn't need to read it anyway, he had helped write it while in Dumbledore's office on Wednesday. He looked over to his brothers who looked pretty miffed considering they had already packed all of their things and were ready to go home for Christmas. He hadn't bothered packing; he wouldn't have packed anyway, he was sure he had everything at home anyway. The letter read as such:

 _Dear Ron,_

 _I'm sorry for how short notice this is boys, but your Aunt Muriel recently became incredibly ill. Your sister and I are going over to help her out for the next week or so, but we don't expect her to get better until February. Your father is working incredibly hard at the ministry so won't be home to take care of you. Bill and Charlie won't be home as well due to how busy they are. I'm very sorry about this, but hopefully you can come home at Easter._

 _Lots of Love,_

 _Mum._

The truth was Molly and Ginny would simply be sat at home fantasising about an extravagant wedding, masses of riches and bucket-loads of fame. While Arthur would be working, it wouldn't be so hard that he wouldn't have been home. Arthur, unfortunately, was very much under the effects of Dominus Autemea and his case was grave.

 _Molly Prewett didn't have someone who told her how to give the potion properly. She knew she was close to Albus but what if he didn't approve. She had severely overdosed Arthur on their first date while he was in his 7th Year and she in her 6th Year. The overdose was even worse though, because he already liked her and the potion was incredibly strong. He accepted and downed the drink on the first date, it almost seemed to call to him with its milk blue swirls mixed in the generally magenta liquid and it tasted incredibly sweet. The flavour was addicting and reminded him of the very woman in front of him, whose beauty seemed to have amplified 100 times over._

Arthur continued to take that same undiluted drink to this day, soothing his headaches and stresses but unbeknown to him was that it also slowly decreased his IQ. Arthur couldn't get a promotion, not because of the corruption in the Ministry, but because the work he produced was very unsatisfactory. He had been given his initial job due to his incredible OWL and NEWT grades. He had always admired muggles and their ability to adapt, which was why he began to work in the department specific to them. But due to a decrease in his mental stability, admiration became obsession and the job he had was one given out of pity. No one else was truly willing to take a job in the "lesser" departments, such as ones that dealt with muggles, but the moment someone finally applied, Arthur would most likely be out of a job.

Under such a strong potion it would be unlikely for him to notice a lack of children in the house when they weren't even usually there. And this is how Molly's plans continued to fall into place.

Ron looked around and noticed that his best mate wasn't in the hall, but that didn't matter, there would be plenty of time to bond later.

* * *

It was now late Saturday afternoon and Minerva was sat in her office going over homework she had set for her 3rd Years. She heard a knock at the door and looked up to see Harry Potter with a confident grin on his face walking towards her.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Potter. To what do I owe this visit?" she asked with a smile, glad to have at least a small break from marking pages of work.

"I need to leave Hogwarts at some point during these holidays. I already have a route out but the issue is that I am going to need your help."

"In what way?"

"Well, I need an adult for where I need to go. Also I need an alibi. It's the holidays and I wouldn't be surprised if it was noticed that I was gone. So if maybe on Monday morning you could call me out of the Great Hall for something then people would simply assume that we were together, which we would be."

"OK then Mr Potter. Before we continue, are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, Miss Granger has arrived back at her parents home and you seem slightly down."

"I'm fine."

"Well then let's move on. What your plan Mr Potter?"

* * *

Harry had been very confident walking into McGonagall's office, after all he now was in possession of a very powerful stone.

Very early in the day, Harry left the boys dorm which only contained himself and a certain red head who wouldn't stop snoring or releasing gas throughout the night.

Changed into an oversized shirt and jeans that had been transfigured to actually fit him, Harry retrieved his cloak and ran down several flights of stairs. He found the room containing the mirror with ease, and looked into it imagining the stone and all of it's features and there it was in his hand. Not wanting to be caught he near-ran to the door of the room, but he glanced back for a second.

Looking in he once again saw a large group of his ancestors behind him but he was older, and someone was stood next to him as well. Bushy hair, bright eyes and a beautiful smile. There in the mirror stood Hermione Granger.

* * *

 **Hey guys! Hoping to also get Chapter 12 out tomorrow, I'm really glad that a lot of you guys are enjoying the story so far. Thanks for the reviews, criticism and ideas, they really help me improve the story for you guys.**

 **This chapter has been updated, but only very slightly with a few sentences being added in, if you have any ideas of what should be included please let me know and I'll be sure to try and include it.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I do not own Harry Potter, if I did Pettigrew wouldn't have sold out his friends, he did though - and JKR owns the series.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter please remember to leave a review. Thank you!**

* * *

Two days later, and Professor McGonagall had just left her seat at the staff table, during breakfast and slowly made her way down to the Gryffindor table where Harry was sat with Neville, Dean and Seamus. It seemed like the young red-head was still sleeping which was unsurprising due to the vast amounts of food he had eaten the night before, during dinner. When she finally reached him she said with a smile, "If you would like to come with me Mr. Potter." She had waited till he had finished breakfast and was simply talking with his friends before coming down to interrupt.

They began to head towards her office.

* * *

It was now 14:00 and Ronald Weasley finally stirred. He was starving. He looked around the room noticing that his best friend had already left, 'probably to go save me a seat at breakfast'. Without bothering to get dressed, Ron slugged down to the Great Hall to find it full of the few people who stayed for Christmas, including his brothers, eating lunch. Undeterred and only spurred to move on by the smell of food he sat at the closest seat to the biggest plate of food, ignoring the stares at his choice of grubby clothing and the slightly concerned looks he was receiving from his brothers. Finally he sat down and hoovered the contents of the table into his mouth, no longer caring about the absence of his best friend.

* * *

Just after leaving the Great Hall, McGonagall and Harry were leaving the elder witch's office and heading down to the One-Eyed witch. Harry donned a hooded black cloak. This wardrobe had been decided in the hopes that due to all the crowds partaking in last minute Christmas shopping would barely notice someone whose face was hardly noticeable. It was hoped that Minerva could get away with claiming that she was buying school supplies.

They arrived at the one-eyed witch, and though she was confused as to why they were there, the Professor did not show it, and as Harry revealed the tunnel into Hogsmeade, she made a mental note as to how to get in. She was mildly perplexed as to why Harry would show her, until she realised that if this was his second time round at Hogwarts, he wouldn't care about visiting Hogsmeade again or have too much interest in escaping the castle. There was also a chance that he knew of other exits, either way she just had to focus on the task ahead.

* * *

Ginny was busy at home creating her 22nd to scale clay-build of her future husband. Decorated all over her walls were hand made posters of what she believed the great Boy-Who-Lived would look like. In all of her letters to her wonderful brother Ron, she had been begging for at least one picture of her new husband. Sometimes she thought of whether he'd love her with or without the potion, who wouldn't love her? Her brothers loved her loads, especially Ron. She already loved Harry Potter, it would be easy for him to love her too. And if he didn't, she would make him, she would remove the mudblood sullies his mother had added to the honourable House of Potter, she would make him love her, she would become his everything, she would be all he had.

* * *

After apparating out of Hogsmeade from walking to a discreet area, Minerva kept her eye on Harry as the slithered through Diagon Alley, avoiding eye contact, but being more or less ignored by the large groups of frantic shoppers buying presents that should have been bought a while ago. They headed straight down to Gringotts as fast as they could, battling against the sea of people unhelpfully forcing them back.

Eventually they arrived at the large ornate doors of Gringotts and entered. It was at this point that Harry removed his cloak; there weren't any wizards around and he was aware of the goblins apathy towards wizard gossip and would be unlike to spread information about his visit here. Gringotts bank were also very well known for their client confidentiality. Harry headed confidently, with McGonagall slightly behind, to the front desk. He immediately requested to speak with the manager in perfect Gobbledegook. His directness and assertion near scared the secretary there out of his seat.

The goblin looked down at him and gained his composure once again upon realising it was a child speaking to him. McGonagall however was incredibly surprised at Harry's adeptness at the Goblin tongue, but instead decided to remain quiet so as to try to not make a fool of herself in shock.

After a short amount of conversation, Minerva was told to wait behind, while Harry and another goblin entered a room on the side.

* * *

Two hours later and the duo were heading back to Hogwarts. Harry carried in an added bag a couple of Christmas presents to send to his best friend later that day. They re-entered Hogsmeade. Upon arrival onto Hogwarts grounds Harry headed straight to the Great Hall for dinner avoiding the Weasleys at any cost.

* * *

 **I know this chapter was really short but I haven't had a lot of time. Harry's trip in Gringotts will be spoken about more after Hermione gets back, which is also when they will try and get rid of the stone.**

 **This chapter has been updated and is still ridiculously short, please feel free to message me with any ideas you have to make this story better, thank you!**


	13. Chapter 13

**So... I promised a chapter for a while back, whoops! I actually have exams this week so this is my new form of procrastination. I'll just revise on the day...**

 **Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and sorry for the delay!**

 **I don't own Harry Potter. Still gonna write about him though.**

* * *

Christmas Morning:

Harry awoke to a pillow being thrown in his face. He had been having a rather pleasant dream, the first in a long time since the end of the war. He was sat in a small room, but it wasn't cramped, simply cosy. He had been staring at the door, as though he was expecting someone and the idea of them arriving excited him greatly, yet he could not place why. They - scratch that - he was certain they were a she, she opened the door and BAM! Pillow in the face. _Damn you Ronald, I really wanted to know who she was_ , though Harry had no idea why.

He was brought out of his musings by Ron's gruff voice saying "Oi! Wake up! Presents!" It seemed that Ronald was in such a state that he could only form fragments of sentences, but Harry preferred it that way, it meant they wouldn't have to make conversation. Harry looked over his presents and noticed that many of them were mostly from the Weasleys. True, he hadn't expected many presents from anyone other than Hermione and potentially a letter from Gringotts, though he didn't assume that it would necessarily arrive on Christmas day, but these presents were even more than last time. Perhaps they were trying to lure him into the Weasley clan through this rather than Ron, because clearly that front was failing. Ignoring the stack he had received from them he reached over to a neatly wrapped package that was attached to a small amount of parchment and was signed by Hermione.

 _To Harry,_

 _I hope you like this present, it took quite a while to get the charms working but I think I hacked it!_

 _Love Hermione xx_

Harry heart and face warmed as he unwrapped the packaging and saw a small wristband. It was black and appeared to be relatively normal, until he put it on his wrist. Then white lettering appeared on the band _(Merry Christmas Harry, Let's see if you can figure out how to make this work. You have till the end of the holidays - if you can't figure it out, I'll teach you! Hermione.)_ He wanted to get onto working on it straight away but felt it would probably look suspicious to even the red-headed dunderhead if he started poking and prodding at his own wrist. It appeared to be some form of communication device. It also seemed like Hermione was challenging him to figure it out so he couldn't wait to get some time to himself.

"Aren't you gonna start opening them then?" Ron said, mouth stuffed with what looked like his mother's mince pies, it took Harry a moment to realise what it was that Ron was saying

"I am Ronald, or didn't you see me unwrapping this one?" Harry snarked.  
"That bracelet thing? Is that all you got? I bet it was from that dunce. I know you just keep her to make her happy but she seems really bad for you. Look how little she cares, bet that cost 1 knut at best." Harry had heard all these remarks before and though it angered him to hear Ron speak of his best friend in this way, he held his tongue and his wand back. It wouldn't do to attack him and potentially blow his naive golden boy Dumbledore-worshipper cover that he had going on. Perhaps revenge could be exacted at a later point. "Bet you're glad that I told mum you wouldn't be expecting presents for Christmas considering that your muggle family hates you and you seem to have like no friends other than me."

Harry was rather stunned by this. The pile of presents wasn't just weasel; he could spy a present from Neville and one that Dean and Seamus had bought together for him. This time round he hadn't told Ron about his family, so how he knew he could only guess came through Dumbledore. But that he immediately assumed, as did his mother that he wouldn't have anything and that he had no friends hurt. Slightly. Not that much actually. He didn't care what they thought but he didn't want or need their pity presents.

Dean and Seamus had bought him a watch. It was simple but nice. He had gotten Dean a set of watercolours and Seamus the "Big Book of Booms" (basically just explosions that made history). Neville's came with a card from his grandmother who thanked Harry for the kindness, friendship and help he had shown her grandson this year. She had done most of his present it seemed as it was an album depicting images of his and Neville's parents together both in and out of Hogwarts and in and out of the war. It ended quicker than he had expected it to for obvious reasons but noted that the empty pages were for him to fill, and he would try his best to live long enough to do so. He himself had gotten Neville a wand holder to prevent him from losing it as it would always be up his sleeve.

He hadn't gotten anything for Ron. _And why should I? We aren't friends no matter what he thinks, we've barely even spoken this year._

It was now that Harry got to the gifts he had been dreading opening the most. He pulled out a tatty sweater with H knitted onto the front. He remembered how itchy it was and how he had only really worn it to be nice to the Weasley's. As he held it he felt the sudden urge to talk to Ron more and to stop his plans with Hermione and to help Dumbledore. He cast a detector spell over the sweater to see it practically marinated in several loyalty and friendship potions. He threw it to the side without going unnoticed by Ron.

"You ungrateful git!" he screeched, "I went out of my way to tell mum to get you something and you just throw it away." He continued on for a minute or so, until Harry gave him the mince pies as an "apology" coming up with some story about being allergic to something in the fabric. It was a badly told lie but with the added mince pies Ron was happy with it and accepted Harry's _completely genuine apology_. He had noticed that the pies also contained potions and noticed Ron chowing down on them wondering if he was on some kind of neutraliser potions. _If he isn't the outcome would be disastrous for him, but would add some hilarity to the year, Harry thought._

Harry headed to the bathroom, got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. Fred and George were acting as they had done the first time, and considering Harry hadn't found any faults with them, and Hermione hadn't pointed anything out, Harry was fine sitting and talking idly with them. Most of Christmas day continued with Harry spending time with the twins, time spent with them teaching him tricks and he surprising them by doing the same back, and Ron not caring about anyone or anything else as he swallowed down most of the All-Day Buffet Hogwarts had on for Christmas day. _Actually_ , he thought to himself, t _his is a lot better than being home, cause at home I'd have to stop when the food ran out, and I'd have to help clean up._ But that was one of Ron's only coherent thoughts for the rest of the day as the food remained calling for him.

* * *

Ginny, Molly and Arthur were sat at home eating lunch. Well Arthur had already fallen asleep. The issue with potions as strong as Dominus Autemea is as they reduce your IQ your body also relaxes more and stops acting as it should, so after the smallest meal Arthur would begin to feel drowsy and often fall asleep. Ginny was day-dreaming again. She couldn't wait for next year, when she would finally be with Potter. She was so beautiful he would probably fall in love with her immediately. She doubted she would even need any potions for him. Even her own brother, Ron, could hardly resist her. She would have two men in her life, sure one would be rather useless, what with Harry being under a potion, but at least she'd have her Ron to help her get through it. She was unsure about these feelings. Though mum seemed a bit deranged Ginny was quite sure she wouldn't approve of her closeness to Ron, but at least Ginny wasn't with a man 110 years older than her. She headed up to her room after helping wash up to delve into one of her favourite fantasies, arriving at Hogwarts, being sorted into Gryffindor and sitting opposite the boy-who-lived. He wouldn't be able to stop staring at her, and she would pretend not to notice and the fantasy continued. Ginny had thought about it so often, she had planned out the next 7 years of her life with Harry, even their children, and the names she would give them. She couldn't wait.

Molly had put Arthur to bed and noticed that the time had just reached 15:00. An expectant pop was heard and she ran downstairs. "Merry Christmas Albus" she exclaimed so excited to be with her old mentor.

"It is isn't it, and I did spy a certain Potter hanging around two red-headed twins today, you do have a knack with sweaters don't you Molly?"

She blushed in the light of his twinkling eyes. This day was about to get so much more fun.

* * *

Boxing Day:

Hermione Jean Granger awoke with her unkempt hair covering her hazel eyes and a large amount of it on her face. She stretched her arms, yawned and smiled. She was back home. Christmas had been enchanting and she had missed her parents more than she had realised. The holidays so far had been amazing, and though she couldn't wait to get back to Harry, at the same time she didn't want this time to end. She swung her legs off of her bed and noticed that a small snowy owl was waiting expectantly at her window ledge.

"Hello Hedwig," Hermione said as she removed the letter from his beak and passed him some biscuit crumbs that were left from 'Santa' eating the cookies by her window. She lived in a house without a chimney, so the story she had been told was that Santa came in through the window. The more she thought about it the weirder it sounded but either way it scored her parents cookies and she always took one for herself too. Hedwig flew off content, and Hermione opened the letter.

 _To Hermione,_

 _Thanks for the gift, I'll figure it out before you comeback or I owe you 5 new books from any store you want. I hope you like the gift I got for you!_ (He had given her a weightless and bottomless bag and a few books at Advanced Mastery level of several different topics. She had also received jewellery from Parvati and Lavender respectively as well as a set of paints from Fay. She had sent them each hair-slides, one that she thought represented each of them individually. Her parents got her what she had received from the last time, the complete set of A Series of Unfortunate Events ( **A/N It's an incredible series and if you haven't read it or at the very least watched the Netflix show you are missing out** ) which she couldn't wait to re-read. She had bought her friends presents with her parents at the beginning of the holidays and her mum and dad wouldn't hear of her buying the presents for them so she handmade them cards.) _I have retrieved the stone and I promise to wait for you to get back before trying to destroy it. I also visited Gringotts a couple of days ago, with McGonagall. Apparently I am Lord Slytherin (for defeating Voldemort when I was one) Lord Gryffindor through descent, and of course Potter. Also, it appears that Dumbledore stole a few million galleons from my vaults and has closed off my parents will. I already know it's contents from last time but I had it reopened. The goblins are taking money back from the Great Professor to make up for the money lost. But that's the boring part._

 _I also wanted to know what you think of the twins. I've spent Christmas with them and I can't remember having any problems with either of them, I wanted to know if you think we can trust them. Not with the fact that this is round 2 but just as friends. I did get a lot of presents from their mum though; she is so sweet to her son's friends especially me! (I'm being sarcastic) Come back soon, Ron is becoming too much, even for his brothers._

 _Merry Christmas Hermione, Missing you_

 _Harry x_

Hermione's want to return to Hogwarts strengthened, wanting to see Harry and destroy the stone. She looked at her own wristband, and couldn't wait to get those five books when she got back.

* * *

 **I'm pretty sure this is the longest chapter I've written, I hope you've enjoyed. Please leave reviews!**


	14. Chapter 14

**I don't own HP or the Wizarding World, if I did then I'd probably make Drapple canon, but JKR owns the franchise.**

 **The underlined lines come directly from the books.**

* * *

The stands erupted; it had to be a record, no one could remember the Snitch being caught so quickly **,** no one but Harry and Hermione anyway. Harry had caught the snitch faster than last time, already remembering where the Snitch was going to be, going at such a speed he nearly took off Snape's nose. He looked over to Hermione who was grinning at him sat next to Neville far from the fist fight that had ensued between Draco and Ron, that Ron was clearly losing. The past couple of weeks since the Christmas holidays had been calm, Harry and Hermione spent time as normal students, enjoying themselves, practising with Oliver Wood, spending time with Hagrid, taking their time before destroying the stone. They also were able to enjoy the party afterwards, without worries about Nicholas Flamel or anything else. It seemed as though they had tied up all the loose ends for first year, other than destroying the stone. Hermione taught Harry how to use his Christmas present and would not soon forget that he owed her those books. It was a small communications device that they could use to talk to each other, no matter how far apart they were.

Ron was pissed off. He had a broken nose, two weeks of detention, and no Harry Potter. The mudblood spent too much time with his best friend, but he was never able to get rid of her. The potions, the troll, the insults: none of it worked. Maybe he would have to try something else, like perhaps getting her kicked out of Hogwarts. He didn't care that she was a model student, he would find a way.

* * *

Harry and Hermione walked down to Hagrid's house and knocked on the door like they had been doing almost every other day. However, he took longer to answer the door, and as they sat down to talk and pretend to eat the literal rocks they were served, Hagrid seemed jittery, like he was incredibly excited for something that was about to happen. It was when Harry asked her about Hagrid's strange behaviour once they had left that it clicked for Hermione "Norbert!"

"Sorry, who?" Harry replied. Hermione was more than shocked that Harry couldn't remember the name of the pet dragon their friendly giant had adopted back in their first year.

"Oh yeah, we could try contacting Charlie. You know, as a friend of Ron's" Harry said once Hermione had jogged his memory.

It was a simple enough plan, and they returned to Hagrid's to investigate.

* * *

 **Two Days Later**

Ron was swallowing the mountain of food he had placed before himself when he was interrupted by the squawk of a tawny owl carrying a letter. It dropped a letter for him which he promptly ignored to continue digging through his breakfast, he could look at it after he was finished.

Harry though sat, joking and chatting with Seamus and Neville noticed the letter and recognised the owl as the one Charlie had used to send him a letter a day prior, which stated that Charlie's friends would be able to get the dragon out just as they had done last time. Both he and Hermione had been very careful, not to talk too loudly about it, so as not to alert Draco of what would happen. He alerted Hermione, who was already aware of the letter Ron received and had near zoned out of her conversation with Fay who hadn't seemed to notice Hermione's absent mind. They could only hope the contents of that letter didn't affect their plans for the evening.

Finally Ron trudged up to his dorm to sleep off his food with the letter gripped in his hand. It was no covered in grease from his sausages and bacon, sauce from his beans, yolk from his eggs, juice from a spilled glass and crumbs from his toast. He fumbled around trying to open it, but his hands were far to greasy so he tore it open. The letter within read:

 _Dear Ron,_

 _I hope your well. I'll see you tonight when you, Harry and Hermione are bring the Ridgeback up to the tallest tower at midnight. Make sure you're not caught and make sure not to get too close to the fangs, Ridgebacks are poisonous._

 _See you later,_

 _Charlie._

Ron was confused. Why was Charlie writing to him? Why was he writing to Harry and Hermione? Why would they be delivering a dragon to Charlie? Then it hit Ron. He could use this. He could make it seem like it was Hermione's dragon and she had forced Harry to join her to get rid of it. If she was found with a dragon she would have to have her memories wiped, her wand snapped and be sent back home to her muggle family. All he had to do was warn McGonagall.

* * *

This time remembering to wear the cloak, Harry and Hermione returned down the staircase after having rid themselves and a weepy Hagrid of Norbert. They simply convinced Charlie that Ron was too ill to come and the dragon was gone. They were positively gleeful nearly skipping back to their dorms when they nearly crashed into McGonagall berating a certain red-head.

"Mr. Weasley you have wasted a great deal of my time with your lies, I expect you in detention tomorrow night."

"But Professor, Hermione is coming. She has a dragon and she is forcing Harry to take it upstairs."

"That is enough Mr. Weasley. If you are not careful I will have to contact your parents. Mr Potter and Miss Granger are exceptional students and slandering them simply lessens my opinion of you. 50 points from Gryffindor and that will increase if you do not return to your dormitory immediately."

Ron scuttled away, utterly confused and unaware of the two causes of his problems rushing past trying to get to the dorms before he saw them out of bed. Without so much as a goodbye, they entered their respective rooms drew their curtains and quickly got into bed. Ron came by 5 minutes later and checked behind Harry's closed curtains to find him sleeping like a baby. Perplexed, Ron fell into his own bed without bothering to change his clothes.

The next morning, when Harry awoke, he saw Ron rereading Charlie's letter. He quickly came up with something to stop Ron from investigating further.

"Did you get one too?"

"One what?" Ron grunted.

"One of those prank letters. Someone's been sending letters to everyone and confusing them. I got one about a Chinese Fireball being delivered by Dumbledore to someone called Charlie. What does your's say?"

Ron, happy to notice that he and Harry were conversing without the mudblood insight replied, "It's stupid, something about a Ridgeback, but as if anyone would believe this tosh."  
"Yeah, you should probably just ignore anymore letters that come through."

"Yeah," Ron said, before realising he was late to breakfast. He rushed out of the dorm and Harry smiled, hopeful that his lie had worked.

* * *

 **This one is pretty short and came out later than expected, we are however almost at the end of Harry and Hermione's first year.**


	15. Chapter 15

**... I'm so sorry for the wait guys, it's actually been two months... I have had a butt-load of homework, revision and exams and technically I should still be revising for those but it wasn't fair to keep you guys waiting. I want to finish first year pretty soon so expect a couple of updates and I may also start editing older chapters.**

 **I just set up a twitter account _HarmonyPanger_ so that I can set up polls and give you guys updates.**

 **Do I even need to tell you that it belongs to JKR?**

* * *

"Harry!" Hermione called exasperated, "We need to get rid of that stone before exam period starts or we'll be way too busy to even try."

"Hermione, you already know the exams are going to be a breeze, it's first year. But I guess you're right, we should get rid of the stone while we can."

That night they both snuck into the common room and lit the fireplace. They patiently waited for the flames to have grown before throwing the stone in.

"Well, that was easy." Harry yawned, and they both went back to bed.

* * *

It was now Monday, the last Monday before the exams and the first years were sat under the simpering stare of Professor Quirell. He had raised their revision much slower over the past few weeks than the other teachers but he grilled them about the exams all the same.

"R-r-remember children, t-these exams are v-very important for your work n-next ye-" Something caught Quirell's eye, a red glint in the hand of a red-haired child. Ronald was holding the small ruby, showing it off to everyone but Harry. He had a new plan. Make Harry Potter as jealous as possible about not being the friend of Ronald Weasley, then Harry Potter would dump the freak and they could be friends forever. He had found the weird stone in the fireplace as he had rushed down for breakfast. It sparked Ronald's brilliant plan that would surely nab him the boy-who-lived before the holidays started. He hadn't shown troll-face either, she wasn't worthy. Unfortunately his plan wasn't going very well, apparently when people are constantly surrounded by magic, small gemstones don't mean much anymore. Eventually Ronald grew tired of holding the stone, he placed it in his bag but would be sure to bring it out at lunch and dinner.

Quirell watched greedily as the young boy placed the precious stone back into his bag. The Dark Lord knew his next step.

* * *

"Hey, Potter!" Ron called cheerily to his friend, "Look what I have!"

Look Harry did, as did Hermione and behind them Professor Quirell and the whole staff table, all of them with their jaws touching the floor. _Where did he get that?_ and _How on earth did he get past our system? _Could be heard flitting around the staff table. "Mr Weasley!" Professor McGonagall called, "My office. Now."

Confused Ronald stuffed the stone in his pocket and trudged after the old professor. _He was missing his dinner, and for what? Because he spoke a little loudly in the Great Hall, everyone is talking at that time, not just Ronald._

"Alright, whatever," Ron said as soon as they were in the professor's office, "I'm sorry for shouting across the Great Hall. Can I go back to my dinner now?"

McGonagall looked incredulously at him; could he honestly not see that he held great power in his pockets, or that he could have made a very evil presence very aware of the very unsafe position the stone was in? This was happening at the worst possible time, students were preparing for exams, teachers were preparing for them too, everyone would be too distracted to keep an eye on the stone. And how did a child like Ronald Weasley, whose grades were less than average manage to get through the obstacles that the professors of Hogwarts had set up. Of course they all knew the defence system wasn't as high quality as it could have been, but as always Albus had been very vague about why this stone needed protection and from whom. The only reason McGonagall had any idea was thanks to the information she had received from Harry and Hermione.

"Mr Weasley, no you cannot return to dinner," his face fell, "and I expect an explanation as to how you found this stone."

"I don't know. It was just lying around, why? It's just some rock, noone would care about it." Clearly the child didn't know what he was holding was of immense importance, and perhaps the idiot was telling the truth, it seemed unlikely that he could get past the defences even if other students could have. Still, nothing in the possession of Ronald Weasley was "safe".

"I'm confiscating it Mr Weasley, it does not belong to you and you should have handed it into a teacher the moment you found it." Ronald gave it up with surprising ease, it hadn't really scored him any points with Harry so it was pretty worthless to him. McGonagall dismissed the boy and placed the stone in a small compartment under her desk before sealing it shut. She checked her door twice to make sure it was locked and headed back in the direction of the Great Hall.

* * *

Harry and Hermione quickly went up to the boy's dorm, shut the curtains around Harry's bed and cast a quick _Muffliato_. Clearly they had a problem. "We got lazy." Harry started, "We should have tried to get rid of the stone ages ago and then we should have waited, made sure it was actually gone, now its in the hands of an idiot who practically screamed 'HEY VOLDEMORT, I GOT YOU A WELCOME BACK GIFT'. You'd think doing things a second time round would mean we'd learn from the first time, nothing is ever easy."

"Harry, we should have done a lot of things but we didn't. It'll be fine we've just got to be more efficient. It's unlikely McGonagall actually let him keep the stone, she's not an idiot, but Voldemort will know that too. We should speak with her, find out what she did with it and then we need to figure out another way of getting rid of it."

"No." Harry said abruptly, "We need to figure out a way of getting rid of it now."

They wrote up a list:

 _Bury it? - It would be suspicious to be digging up dirt on Hogwarts ground_

 _Throw it in the lake? - A well meaning merman may bring it back to surface, it could wash up on the bank_

 _Throw it in the forest? - LV spends a lot of time in the forest looking for unicorns, the centaurs could find it, how would we get into the forest?_

 _Put it in the Room of Requirement? - What kind of room? What if someone else finds that kind of room and the stone in it?_

In bold at the bottom of the page was _**WHAT IF LV IS WATCHING US?**_

If the Dark Lord was watching them more closely now, he would easily see, or rather Quirell would easily see them trying to dispose of it, wherever the two Gryffindors tried to hide it, Voldemort might know and would be able to retrieve it, wasting all of Harry and Hermione's efforts.

"Burying it!" Hermione squealed.

"But it was you who brought up how suspicious it would look if someone was to see us messing around in the dirt, anyone could see us and Quirell could easily find out."

"So we don't bury the stone on Hogwarts grounds. Then noone knows and noone can find it. I know exactly how."

"If that's the case then we only have to retrieve the stone and get rid of Voldemort. Which is obviously easier said than done." Hermione grabbed Harry's hand.

"Harry you have defeated him 8 times over, you can do it again, and this time I'm helping." Hermione said with a smile.

Harry nervously ran his hands through his hair. "Thanks Hermione, you're a great friend."

* * *

 **I think next chapter will be the last chapter or at least the penultimate chapter so I will shortly be adding a poll to my twitter ( HarmonyPanger) please go and vote!**


	16. Chapter 16

**It has been a while, hasn't it. Happy New Year (I say in late February). I've just had a serious case of writer's block and have spent a lot of time updating previous chapters. For chapters 12 to 15 though, I haven't made many updates because, as I said, I'm not really sure where to take those chapters. If you have any ideas or criticisms please feel free to leave a review or message me!**

 **WARNING-THEMES OF ABUSE _(just ignore the dream sequence at the beginning if that stuff triggers you)._**

 **I'm not saying I own Harry Potter, no one's saying they own Harry Potter. Well, Rowling's saying she owns Harry Potter, I wonder why?**

* * *

 _Hermione was running through a desolate wasteland. Everywhere she looked was just barren. The air was stale and her throat felt tight. She was running, she didn't know where or what to but her feet kept moving and she kept following them. Her hair was covering her face, blocking most of her vision as she ran. Her hands were clammy and sweat was cascading down her face, drowning the hair that was whipping her face._

 _She saw a wall in front of her, coming closer as she ran. It seems endless and completely out of place. It's tall, metallic and bleak. She continued running towards it. She was panting as she ran, out of breath and terrified. If she didn't stop she'd bang straight into the wall. It inches closer and closer and suddenly, she runs straight through it._

 _She was back on the platform at Kings' Cross. She couldn't feel her arms properly. Her legs were very close together. She looked down and saw her arms and legs strapped together in a straight-jacket. The platform was empty. She couldn't find anyone. No one was available to help her. No one was there. She struggled and struggled. She pulled at her arms and legs trying to free her self. She felt like she was nailed to the ground. She still couldn't breathe. She felt her hair wrapping itself around herself, tighter and tighter. It was choking her. She closed her eyes, tears brimming at the ends of them. Suddenly, she was pushed against a wall._

 _She opened her eyes and saw that her hair had been replaced with a hand. Ronald's hand. He was tightening his grip, harder and harder. As he did so, he was getting taller and taller, bigger and bigger. She tried to escape, she tried to break free, as she did she felt his hand squeezing harder and harder. Suddenly he said:_

 _L̖̃ͩ̽e̪̘̪̗̟̗̳t̪̩̻͙̦ͤ̈'̯̰͎̞͛s̬̹̟̹͎͔̏̑ ͎̖̹͐p͇̼̹͙͛ͪḻ͕̖͓͇̮̠̽a̗̤ͤͪ̄̽ͤ͌ͫyͯͥͧ ̻̫ͩ͛ͧ̆̔̽̚w͇i̫̱̠̱̳̼ͥͯt͋ͥ͆h̼̜̲̞͆̈̑̎̽͐ͮ ̤̤̞͓̀̒̎̈̊̚t̃͒̈́̄͌̉h̗̼̯ͦ̑͗͋̈e̝̙̻̥͐̎ ͈̺ͩ͊̊̄̽s̟̲͎̙̳̘ͅt͇̺͖̽ͬ͂u̞p̩̘̖̟͕̅̔ͪͫͅĩ͕͌͂ͯͧ͛d̦͙͕̙̠̼ ̤͇͍̘̪̊ĺ̜͗̅ͅi͐̆̉̿͂͐̃t̙̲̱̒ͪt͙͕̠̫̜̯͇l͖̣̎ẹ̘̣͐̀͒̈́ ̹t̪̞̰̞̗̻ͣõ̰̩̞͎̥̱̔͆̿́̒͑yͮ!̆ͥͧ͊_

 _Hermione screamed as she heard his voice growl and glitch horrifyingly. He began shaking her up and down making her head hit the floor and the ceiling of a new room she now found herself in. It was just a white blur to her, she couldn't see what was going on, all she could feel was the pain in her head and shoulders as she was flung up and down._

 ** _Yo͏u'́vé ͡b̸een v̧e̵r͢y ̧n̨aug̀hty ̨ha̵ven̛'͘t̕ you͡? ͝_**  
 ** _͠Ru҉nnin҉g a̕way ́l͠ik̶e that, you ̛k̷n̨o̶w ̢y̛ou҉ ̢sho̵ul͠d̕n't́ ͡be ̸do҉in͘g̵ ̷things̸ ͟l̷iḱe ͏th̴at͝._**  
 ** _̶I'͘m̴ ̶v̶e̴ry ͏di̢sa͞p̷poin͏te̵d in̷ ̨y̛ou͟.̧_**  
 ** _Í'͞m̶ t̷a̶kin͝g ̨yo̡u ͟h̷o͘me ͢ànd ̢lo͏ckįn̸g͢ yo͟u͠ b̡ac͝k͟ u̸p ̀ag̴aíń.́_**  
 ** _͘This time͠ Į w͠on͘'̕t ̶l҉e͜t͢ ̸y͝ou out̡.͢_**

 _Suddenly, he stopped. His grip loosened, and for a brief moment, Hermione felt some relief. Until she opened her eyes and saw that she was indeed trapped in a cage, covered in metal bars and padlocked. She screamed in distress, but noone was around to help her._

* * *

Hermione woke up drenched in sweat. She didn't know what was happening, she was breaking down more and more. She looked out the window and saw that the sun was only just rising. Still in shock, Hermione could only repeat the sequences of her dream over and over again in her head until she broke down and tears cascaded down her face. She ran out of the room, straight into the common room afraid of waking anyone up. More than anything she wanted someone to be there, someone she could tell everything to, but she couldn't. They wouldn't understand. Technically, she was an adult and they were all children. Harry could understand but a nightmare is no reason to wake anyone up. Or that's what Hermione told herself. She simply spent the rest of the early hours of dawn, bleary eyed, tired and grieving.

What she didn't know was Harry was still awake. He had been going over what had happened over the course of the last year and hadn't really slept that night. He was pretty annoyed at Ronald for multiple reasons. The first was, of course, Ronald's treatment of Hermione, even as a kid he was pretty horrible to her. Harry couldn't figure out why he hadn't seen it last time. Ronald couldn't be that different, could he? That wouldn't make sense. So what had changed? All he could think had changed was himself and Hermione, but looking back, Ronald had been really rude to Hermione in the last timeline, he was the reason she ended up facing a troll when she was just a kid. And he probably caused her a lot of stress with his constant barrage of insults and taunts. Ronald was also incredibly irritating with his constant fawning over Harry, it was getting kind of ridiculous. Every time he arrived at dinner, Ron'd run over to Harry and attempt to push other people out of the way to try and sit with Harry. He didn't even need to try anymore, people automatically moved out of the way when Ron arrived meaning that Harry and anyone sat opposite him often needed to deal with food splattering everywhere. Now, most of the Gryffindor first years ended up going to breakfast earlier. Harry looked over to the clock on the wall and saw that it was coming to 7:30 already. He got out of bed, went to the bathroom, changed his clothes and headed downstairs with a book under his arm as it became 8.

As he entered the common room, he found Hermione sleeping on the couch, her hair covering most of her face. In an attempt to wake her up he pounced on to the sofa laughing as she fell off. After the shock wore off Hermione joined in clambering back up onto the couch with Harry.

"You scared me, Harry!"

"You were hogging the sofa!" Harry said, playfully sticking out his tongue.

Hermione laughed and noticed the book under Harry's arm, "What are you reading now?" she asked.

"It, Stephen King."

"You don't seem the type to enjoy horror."

"I've just really gotten into them recently. They're oddly addictive; the room of requirement has loads of them," Harry said with a shrug. "Why were you down here so early, Hermione?"

Hermione tensed herself slightly before looking towards the fireplace, "No reason, I just woke up kind of early." Suddenly, she felt Harry's hand grab hold of hers.

"Are you sure, Hermione?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a bad dream so I woke up and came down here."

"And you're sure you are alright?"

Hermione was about to allow another lie to roll off her tongue but found that she couldn't, instead she broke down again with a slightly shocked Harry holding her tightly. She quickly stopped herself remembering that other students would be coming down soon and pulled herself away from her friend.

"Hermione? Was the dream about Ron?"

"How'd you know that?" Hermione asked taken aback.

"After I left the Dursleys', I found myself getting nightmares about them every now and again. I hated it. There was always this fear that I'd go to sleep and end up a punching bag for Dudley or Vernon or that I'd just have Petunia screaming and cursing at me all night. It was horrible," Harry said, once again holding onto Hermione's hand, "But it gets better Hermione, it always gets better. This time, Ron can't do anything to you."

The two of them sat in silence for a while, sitting in the comfort of each other's presence.

"Come on, Hermione. Let's go down to breakfast, you'll feel better after you've eaten."

* * *

"I think I've got it," Hermione said, suddenly. Students were leaving the exam hall as the first day of exams had ended. Most people assumed she thought she had done well in the exams. She grabbed hold of Harry's hand and dragged him to the third floor.

"We aren't burying it," Hermione said firmly.

"It was your idea to bury the stone, what are you planning we do instead?" Harry asked, rather confused.

"We need to go back to the mirror, and get the stone," Hermione started.

"Why not just ask McGonagall for it?"

"Because I want you to try and leave it in the mirror."  
"How do I do that?" Harry was incredibly confused.

"There was a small amount of time between you seeing the stone and feeling it in your pocket, right?"

"Yeah a small gap, so?"

"We are going to head down, go to the mirror and the second you see the stone, you are going to tell me."

"What are you going to do?"

* * *

"Shoot. I forgot about this."

Harry and Hermione now found themselves at the potions riddle, with none of the right potion left. The black flames were still blazing in front of them and they had no way through.

"The rest of the tasks are pretty simple. Do you think it's just a simple fire?" Harry asked.

"What do you mean? It's been burning all year and is pitch black, how could it be a simple fire?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"No, I mean, couldn't a simple _Aguamenti_ get rid of it?"

"I mean, there's no trouble in trying," Hermione said with a shrug.

Hermione pointed her wand at the flames and cast _Aguamenti_ with as much force as possible. Surprisingly, it worked. "Were they even trying to protect the stone?" Hermione muttered to herself.

They cautiously headed through the door and entered the next room. There they saw the Mirror of Erised, and both headed towards it. Harry looked into the mirror thinking of the stone.

"Hey, I see it!"

" _Bombarda!"_

They watched as the mirror shattered into thousands of small shards and scattered all over the floor.

"How do we know it worked?" Harry asked.

"McGonagall. She will have taken the stone, we can check if she still has it, if not we know that it's gone. All we'd need to do is expose Voldemort somehow."

"If we expose him, Voldemort would probably leave Quirrell and end up as a weird spirit for the next couple of years. But how would we do that?"

"Probably something stupidly simple, like summoning his turban to us or something."

"Well there's the plan for dinner" Harry laughed.

"Are we joking, or are we actually going to attempt to summon his turban?"

"No harm in trying, right?"

And with that, they headed away from the third floor and back to their dorm before curfew.

* * *

 **I really hope you guys enjoyed that chapter, it was a little different, let me know what you think of the dream sequence, my main aim was just to show some effects of abuse and give Hermione and Harry some friendship time!**

 **Please follow and review and remember to give any ideas for how I could improve the story!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Another chapter! Really sorry if this one isn't very good, I'm writing it in hospital while hooked up to an IV so let me know if there are any mistakes.**

 **Harry Potter is not mine!**

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"Albus!" McGonagall was exasperated, no matter what she said or did, the Headmaster would not allow her to try and strengthen the defences around the stone. "If a less than average student is able to get past the security system we have in place, then what ever else you're trying to protect it from will easily get past."

"Minerva, trust me, it'll be fine," Dumbledore said with a half-smile as they headed towards her office to retrieve the stone. McGonagall clenched her teeth at the idea of trusting this man again, especially after the things she had heard from her two favourite students. They headed towards the drawer containing the stone once they had entered her room.

McGonagall unlocked her desk and audibly gasped at the empty space. Dumbledore finally showed the slightest bit of concern with a raise of his eyebrows and a lack of twinkle in his eyes. "Where has it gone? I had left it here." She turned towards the Headmaster in fury. "I told you, didn't I? If the defences around that godforsaken stone were better, that dunderhead-ed ginger wouldn't have gotten his hands on it and it wouldn't have been out of our reach at this point. We shall have to conduct a luggage search after dinner with an early curfew."

"Yes, yes we shall," Dumbledore agreed, interrupting her tirade, "alert the rest of the staff of the disappearance of the stone. We must find it before anyone else does."

* * *

"Alright, Harry, ready?" Hermione said. She couldn't deny that she was nervous. They were about to unveil a Dark Lord who's name people were still too afraid to mention even decades after the Battle of Hogwarts. They could be about to unleash chaos in the hall; Voldemort might not even leave Quirell and instead go on a killing spree throughout the student body.

"Yeah," Harry replied, the slight tremor in his voice not going unnoticed by his friend who knew he was probably thinking the same things. Hermione already held her wand in her hand under the table as Harry pulled his out.

"Ok, 3...2..." and a clinking glass interrupted them. Both of them turned towards the source of the noise: Professor Dumbledore clanging a fork to a glass. His smile was definitely gone and he seemed to be looking directly at every student at once. Hermione and Harry lowered their wands and kept their focus on the old headmaster.

"Unfortunately, a very important artefact has been misplaced and we are not completely uncertain that it hasn't been stolen. Because of this we will need every student to return to their common rooms where they will be met with by either their Head of House or another available teacher. A luggage search will be held to make sure none of you have attempted to keep hold of this object. We hope that before we have to search the entirety of the school, one of you comes forward with it and the punishment will be much less severe. This includes our Prefects, our Head boy and our Head girl." Harry and Hermione turned to look at each other and immediately knew he was referring to the stone. They had checked before leaving the room holding the Mirror of Erised and neither of them had it on them so neither of them had anything to worry about. Hermione turned herself towards Professor Quirrell who looked mildly interested, clearly he had some idea of what was missing and was probably hoping that he'd be the one to find it and keep it for himself. It didn't matter what he or Voldemort thought however, as Hermione knew he would never find that stone or gain any access to it or the likes of it. The general noise of the Great Hall was becoming louder as the chatter of students slowly descended into shouts of dismay and accusation. Slowly the students began to disperse to their dorms, ready for the search that two Gryffindors knew would be futile.

* * *

Now sat in the Gryffindor common room, Harry and Hermione were forming a plan. "Harry that was a ridiculous plan, imagine unmasking Voldemort in front of the entire school, who knows what he would've done."

"You're right. We need an actual plan but I have an idea for something else,"

"What?" Before he could explain Professor McGonagall walked in with Lavender Brown and called Hermione upstairs for her luggage check. Hermione watched as the professor went through Hermione's bedside drawers, her suitcase and bags and through the pockets of her clothes. "Anything to tell me, Miss Granger?" the Professor turned to Hermione with a sigh, preparing to head down the stairs and retrieve the next child.

"Yes." The professor had to catch herself. She'd asked every other child the same question and hadn't expected Hermione Granger, of all students, to answer. "We destroyed it; the stone, we destroyed it."

"You're certain," McGonagall said, hiding her shock incredibly well.

"Yes, professor. Otherwise you wouldn't have lost it."

"Well, we shall have to continue the investigation unless you are willing to explain to the other professors what happened to it."

"No professor," Hermione said, her cheeks burning up.

"Good. Enjoy the rest of your evening."

* * *

McGonagall couldn't exactly work out why the two children had decided to destroy the stone over leaving it with her. She couldn't even fathom how they had done it. The more she thought about it the more it confused her. She had felt the two children had put trust in her but considering the fact that her first thought was to go straight to the headmaster, she could understand why they hadn't come to her for help. She had finally finished searching the girls' rooms, after Hermione she hadn't been so thorough. She had now moved on to the boys' dormitories and had left Mr. Potter until last.

"Mr. Potter."

As they headed upstairs Harry informed her of his plan, alerting her of another danger within Hogwarts walls. She immediately agreed.

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 **A little short but I hope you enjoyed it, I wanted to get out another chapter without waiting too long though!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Wow, I've been working on this story, for 2 years now, I really hope you guys are enjoying it because that makes this story worth it! Happy Easter!**

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The first year boys dorm was now blocked off. The minister of magic, 3 aurors, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, alongside Harry, Ronald, Molly and Arthur Weasley were now stood around the younger Weasley's bed. Laying there was one petrified Peter Pettigrew.

"I'm sorry, Professor, but you are going to have to explain to me exactly how you made this discovery," Minister Fudge sighed as he turned to face McGonagall.

"Like I said minister, I didn't, Mr Potter did, I was simply performing a bag check."

"Right, yes, well," the minister tripped over his words for a moment before collecting himself. "And why was a bag checking taking place, has one of the students stolen something."

"No, nothing like that Cornelius," Dumbledore jumped in suddenly, "it was simply a check."

"Right, well," Fudge now turned his attention to Harry, "How did you make this discovery then, boy?"

"Well, I know who Peter Pettigrew was- is, sir," Harry began. If he and Hermione had learnt anything, it was that people swallowed up his tragic hero, longing for his parents, character that Rita Skeeter had eventually created; now Harry was ready to use that to his advantage. "You see, when I found out that they were wizards, I started looking into what happened a bit more. I learnt everything I could about them, and that included how they... died," Harry paused for a moment, "So I knew about Pettigrew and Black and the fight that broke out, but something didn't really make sense to me."

"And what was that?" Fudge asked.

"How a finger that was clearly cut, came out of an explosion that obliterated 12 people without a trace. But I ignored it, at least the criminal had been locked away. When Professor McGonagall was checking my bag, I went over to my friend, Ron's bed to look at Scabbers. I remembered him saying that Scabbers was really old, that the Weasleys had owned Scabbers for nearly 11 years." Ron couldn't really remember saying any of this to Harry, but the fact that Harry had outright called Ron his friend was his main focus, even Mrs Weasley had to hide the smile that was threatening to beam. "He'd also shown me that Scabbers had a toe that was missing, exactly where Pettigrew had lost his finger. It was a bit of a jump, and I didn't even know whether or not he could have been an animagus but I told Professor McGonagall."

"I did at first tell him that he was being ridiculous, that there was no way that this rat could possibly be Peter Pettigrew, but he was insistent, eventually, I only turned him back to prove a point."

"You immediately stunned him?"

"Of course, he is essentially an intruder in Hogwarts and a young boys' dormitory."

"And how did you know about animagi? As I understand it that isn't a first-year topic."

"No sir, but I did some extra reading over the summer and came across them." Harry did notice that Fudge looked rather sceptical. The plan had been incredibly shoddy, only put together in the few minutes Harry had between Hermione's inspection and his own. But Fudge couldn't possibly find out how Harry knew what he did, and would most likely just be happy figuring out what happened, or at the very least having the Daily Prophet proclaim how he brought a criminal out of hiding and locked him up before allowing the freedom of a wronged man, or that's what Harry was hoping.

"I'm afraid," the minister said turning to the older Weasleys, "I am going to have to issue your arrest."

"I'm sorry?" Mrs Weasley gasped, "What have we done?"

"Not a proper arrest, but house arrest. You won't be allowed to leave your home and will be under constant ministry surveillance."

"But Arthur here is already part of the ministry," Mrs Weasley said, hanging on the arm of her husband.

"Yes, about that, I will have to ask you to take a temporary leave. The two of you have been potentially harbouring a potential criminal."  
"But I thought, Pettigrew was a hero, Black nearly killed him and he killed the Potters and those twelve muggles."

"Then what reason would he have to hide?" McGonagall added in.

"Fear of deatheaters?" Molly asked hesitantly.

"10 years later? I think not, Mrs Weasley. It's simply a precautionary measure, we don't expect anything to change. We'll take Pettigrew to the ministry, bring over a healer and check him over, then hold a small trial to check over some facts. We don't expect any changes, soon after, Ministry presence will be gone from your home, other than the job of your husband, of course," Fudge said with a small smile.

"Will Black be at the trial?" Harry's sudden question caught them all off guard.

"Why would he be at that trial?" Snape sneered, talking for the first time since the gathering had started.

"Because, he's in Azkaban for killing Pettigrew, if Peter's not dead, can we be sure he killed everyone else?"

The discussion of the future continued for some time, eventually leading to the Minister agreeing to stay at Hogwarts for dinner.

* * *

"So, they're holding a trial, that will have both Sirius and Wormtail there to make sure that all the facts are in check," Hermione asked Harry in the common room.

"Essentially. Sirius actually gets a trial this time," Harry said, a smile growing on his face.

"And the minister's still here?"

"Yes?" Harry looked at Hermione, who was clearly formulating some kind of plan, "Why?"

"What if we tried to unveil Voldemort again?"

"I thought we already decided that was a stupid plan."

"But this time there are trained Aurors, the Minister of Magic and already some suspicion because of the stone. It might convince Voldemort that remaining with Quirell is more work than it's worth, he leaves Quirell and if Pettigrew is imprisoned, we delay any plans for resurrection by a long time."

"It could work..." Harry said, mulling it over, "Are you really willing to take that risk?"

"Yes?" Harry gave Hermione a pointed look, "Yes, yes I am," she said with a lot more certainty.

* * *

The scraping of forks, the chatter of students, the laughter of children filled the Great Hall at dinner. Harry and Hermione looked at each other and nodded. _"Accio,"_ and a turban flew across the room.

Screams. It punctuated the hall. Quirell's screams. Hermione was right, Voldemort had immediately noticed the danger and abandoned his vessel. The teachers, the minister and the aurors had seen the face of Voldemort protruding from Quirell's head. Immediately all wands were up and pointed at the stuttering professor. He was struggling for air, convulsing, before collapsing and releasing a final breath. The students were incredibly concerned, none but two truly knowing what had happened. Immediately they were ushered to their common rooms as the professors guarded the body of the late Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"What the hell is going on at this school?" A very pale Cornelius marched towards Dumbledore, "I shall keep this as under wraps and away from public eye for my sake, more than for your own. But I shall be conducting a full ministry inquiry before I leave this school. Cancel any and all unnecessary exams, I'm sure the students won't have any complaints."

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 **I hope that was good, please leave any ideas, suggestions and criticisms for me to help improve the story!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Sorry it's been so long but I'm in the middle of exams and they have hit me hard! Either way I hope you enjoy this chapter. To clear some stuff up, Hermione summoned Quirell's turban, because of this Voldemort realised that he had been exposed. He was on the back of Quirell's head so knew that a large amount of ministry officials were there and decided to abandon Quirell's body; essentially its what he does in the books originally except this time Harry isn't just burning his face off! Also, decided to make Fudge a little more competent, he's Minister of Magic for a reason, he should know how to take control. This chapter is the same evening that Quirell was revealed.**

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"That was risky," Hermione gasped once she and Harry were in the common room.

"Really risky," Harry's grin was huge, confusing Hermione. "What's the joke?"

"No joke, think it's just the adrenaline, it was risky, but it worked!" He laughed a little and watched with Hermione as students began to pile in, some confused, others worried; according to them a professor had just collapsed into a screaming mess and rather than helping him, everyone had turned on him instead.

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Pettigrew was sleeping in the Pomfrey's medical wing. She had done a quick test of his overall health. As it turns out, living as a rat and surviving off of left overs and pet food isn't good for bodily growth. Pettigrew was very short, nearly bald with what little hair he had left on his head scraggly and unkempt. Before Madam Pomfrey had given him an incredibly thorough scrub, he had been grubby, covered in small dirt marks and minor scratches. His clothes, before he had been changed into simple hospital pyjamas, were torn and ancient, clearly not changed in many years. When he had first been released from McGonagall's stunner, he immediately noticed the horde of Ministry officials around him and attempted to run, before once again being petrified and brought over to Pomfrey.

Harry had come to visit.

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Hermione was sat with Lavendar and Parvarti both of whom were expressing clear concern for Quirell's predicament.

"Did you see his face?" Lavendar began, "He went deathly pale."

"And that awful, awful screaming, it was terrifying.."

"And the way he just collapsed, like..like he was.."

"Like he had died?" Hermione asked, giving up attempts of acting worried but both girls still nodded solemnly.

Similarly, other groups of students were having similar conversations about the transpiring events in the Great Hall; "Why were they pointing wands at him?...Was it something in the food?...Could he have been cursed?...Why didn't they just take him to the hospital wing? Why did we have to leave and not him?"

"God, Hermione," Lavendar said suddenly, "this must be absolutely awful for you." Parvarti nodded in sad agreement.

"Really?" Hermione asked rather confused, "Why would it be awful for me specifically?"

"Well, everyone knows how much you love the professors Hermione, you're practically every teacher's golden child," Parvarti said looking pitifully at Hermione.

"Oh, he'll probably be fine though Hermione," Lavendar said, attempting to add some comfort in.

"Yeah, yeah you're right," Hermione said, faking mustering a smile, she began to get up, "I think I'm going to head to bed, it's been a long day." Lavendar and Parvarti nodded in pity and naivety, as Hermione turned and began to smile as she walked up to bed.

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Mr and Mrs Weasley were sat at home. Arthur was glancing at a newspaper while Molly sat in the kitchen stirring a mug of tea that she hadn't even looked at. She normally spent most of her time in the house but now knowing that she wouldn't be able to leave at all, well that made her feel trapped, and she hated it. She had zero control over the situation and it wasn't fair, all because they had found some stupid rat 11 years ago and Percy had decided that's what he wanted as a pet.

Arthur had barely noticed the difference, glancing up every now and again to check on his wife before giving her a smile and barely skim reading his paper. He was like usual, feeling rather tired, so folded the paper and headed over to his wife, he gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead and headed up for bed. He'd had a very big day.

* * *

With a quick wave of his wand, Peter was awake, calmer and aware of his current position. He looked at the chair next to him and noticed Harry, sat calmly, staring at him intently. "H-Harry! It's been so long, I saw you when you were a baby, you wouldn't remember of course, its so good to see you.." he began blathering, words tumbling out of his mouth as he showered Harry with lies of a life lived well. Harry held up his hand and Peter stopped.

"I know what you did." Peter's face paled. If the boy knew, the wizarding world knew. Peter's hands began wringing themselves as he felt the room get hotter and he realised that this could be one of his last few moments, still, trying to call Harry's bluff, he asked "What did I do, boy?"

"You were the secret-keeper," Harry spat, "I don't care about everyone finding out, I don't care about your reputation, what I do want? You to experience what my god-father has for the past 11 years. I hear Azkaban is particularly chilly during this season; you might want to bring an extra coat to your trial." Harry didn't allow an answer, petrifying Peter once again and leaving, returning to his dorm and falling on to his bed, satisfied that he had given the rat at least a little jolt.

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 **Was it short? Yes. Was it rushed? Yes. Was I using it as an excuse not to revise for exams? Yes. Was it blatantly a filler chapter? Yes. Did I still have fun writing it? Yes! Did you guys enjoy reading it? I don't know, let me know by commenting and following! Thank you! (Trust me, the exams are done in two weeks, the chapters'll get much better)**


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